The intrepid Catalan journalist who deserves a movie

Who had the opportunity to see the monologue performed at the Gaudí Theatre titled Things You Only Know When You're Dead, already knows all too well who Irene Polo (Barcelona, 1908 - Buenos Aires, 1942) is, the most daring journalist of Second Republic Catalonia and one of the key figures of that generation of intellectuals who brought a renewed perspective to both the press and literature. It so happens that Francesc Salgado, author of the monologue, is also publishing his complete journalism at Renacimiento and we already have the first volume, An Intruder in the Press. Journalism and Republic (1927-1931).

Polo was an exotic flower in Barcelona newsrooms and, at just 27 years old, was appointed editor-in-chief of the evening newspaper Última Hora. In a normal country, a film would already have been made of her story. Daughter of a sergeant and a seamstress, when she was born her parents were not yet married. To top it off, she had to start working very early to support her mother and two younger sisters because her father was a scoundrel. She was also a lesbian and liked Greta Garbo "with delirium".

Intuition, talent, and tenacity made her a well-known name in the journalism of those years. Also her uniqueness as a young, uninhibited woman, architect of texts marked by naturalness and commitment. She started working in the advertising department of the film production company Gaumont, while journalist María Luz Morales was reviewing films for La Vanguardia, and she worked for the first time as an unsigned journalist. She then moved through a handful of publications and established herself in innovative journalism. In 1936, before the outbreak of the Civil War, she left for America with Margarida Xirgu's theatre company. And in Argentina, she took her own life before she turned 40.

Erased from collective memory by amnesiac Francoism, she was resurrected in 2003 thanks to The Fascination of Journalism. Chronicles (1930-1936), edited by Glòria Santa Maria and Pilar Tur. Now Quaderns Crema reissues the volume in a version that grows by 150 pages. As a novelty compared to the previous edition, we find articles in Spanish that appeared in Las Noticias, Mirador, and Mundo Gráfico, as well as a larger number of pieces published in mastheads such as L’Opinió and L’Instant.

Polo's Disobedient Gaze

The chronicles of Irene Polo convey excitement. They are brave, direct, incisive. They are also extremely entertaining, because Polo's pen is as dynamic as the “dancing teas” of the era. She wrote about the most important and the most humble, such as beggars. Famous is the reportage in which she accompanies Buster Keaton to bathe in Sitges. Also the one in which she chases Francesc Cambó's Rolls-Royce to interview him. Other less known pieces, such as “An interview with Mephistopheles” or the interview with Clara Campoamor, whom Polo rightly calls the Spanish Pankhurst, are also very worthwhile.

We are faced with a book that offers us a disobedient look at a time of profound social changes, both in terms of laws and customs. During the Sallent miners' strike in 1933, Polo asks the actors involved and listens attentively. And the following year she covers the proclamation of the Catalan State made by Companys, which caused so much uproar. On the other hand, neither the CNT nor the FAI liked her prying into certain matters, and this says a lot about Polo and her sense of freedom of opinion, threatened today. The curators of The fascination of journalism

are also authors of Irene Polo's American Years (Cal Carré), a miscellaneous volume that illuminates the last stage of this intrepid journalist with a tragic end who, I insist, deserves a film.