Journalist Gregorio Morán, chronicler of the Transition, dies at 79 | Culture | EUROtoday

The Asturian journalist and essayist Gregorio Morán (Oviedo, 1947) died this Monday on the age of 79, as introduced The Vanguarda medium the place he collaborated between 1988 and 2017, with out detailing the causes of loss of life. He was some of the uncomfortable and acknowledged voices in Spanish journalism, with sharp and combative prose, and creator of an essay work that he devoted to reviewing the Transition and the founding myths of democracy.

It was within the Barcelona newspaper the place he had his best journalistic recognition, together with his Untimely Saturdays, a column printed on Saturdays that turned some of the learn and influential opinion pages within the Spanish press. He left the newspaper in 2017 after denouncing the censorship of one among his articles – which was not printed – during which he criticized the Catalan independence course of, the Generalitat of Catalonia and the media backed by it. He additionally collaborated in Global Chronicle, Vozpópuli, Mundo Obrero, o Change 16. And, in January of this 12 months, he began writing digitally The Objectivethe place he printed his final article on the seventh of this month.

From a really younger age, the author was politically energetic within the anti-Franco opposition and was a member of the Communist Party, going into exile in Paris in 1968 as a consequence of persecution by the regime. He deserted it in 1977, shortly earlier than its legalization, and since then he cultivated a place at all times linked to the left however heterodox and important of its leaders and dominant ideas.

That look marked each his journalistic work and his books. As an essayist, Morán constructed a piece centered on dismantling official accounts of the latest historical past of Spain. They stand out amongst his most influential titles The value of Transitiona vital evaluation of the political pacts that articulated the transition from Francoism to democracy and Misery and greatness of the Communist Party of Spaina portrait of the PCE and its inner contradictions. He additionally wrote Adolfo Suárez: story of an ambition (1979), the biography of the then President of the Government whom he addressed once more 30 years later in Adolfo Suárez: Ambition and future (2009).

The discomfort of his work additionally attracted controversy and censorship. The most notable case was that of The Priest and the Mandarins: Unofficial History of the Forest of the Lettermenwhich was going to be printed by Crítica, from the Planeta group, which lastly determined to veto. “I have never had censorship of this impudence. I am convinced that Planeta will not commit this clumsiness again,” the creator stated then. He refused to purge a chapter that talked about some RAE lecturers, though delicate content material was discovered all through the e book. Planeta argued that the textual content would have price it lawsuits. Akal lastly printed it in 2014. “The problem of censorship now is not a political issue, it is an economic issue,” he additionally declared.

Before his journalistic journey he studied Dramatic Art in Madrid and co-wrote the script for Seven days of January (1979), a movie in regards to the murders of labor legal professionals on Atocha Street that received the Grand Prize on the Moscow Festival the 12 months it was launched.