Like a true trench of resistance in defense of on-the-ground, independent, and rigorous journalism. This is how the 38th edition of the Visa pour l'Image festival in Perpignan presents itself, taking place from August 29 to September 13. In the presentation manifesto, the director and founder of the exhibition, Jean-François Leroy, warns about "the growing precariousness of the sector, the concentration of media outlets, and the political pressures that threaten press freedom." Leroy also points out the disinformation generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and gives as an example the viral fake image of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro handcuffed and escorted by twomarines north Americans. Faced with this, he raises the paradox that AI inexorably needs the rigor of photojournalists to feed on real data and questions whether the agreements between big tech companies and historical publications represent a financial solution or a "deal with the devil".

Yayoi Kusama, one of the most unique and radical creators of recent decades, died on August 14 at the age of 97 in a Tokyo hospital, as reported by her website. According to the statement, which does not specify the cause of death, Kusama painted until her final days, she never put down her brush, obsessed with exploring and finding harmony and collective healing, beyond differences. This will sustained her from the Vietnam War era.

Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco is a professor of contemporary history at the University of Granada and author of Cruces de memoria y de olvido. Los monumentos a los caídos de la Guerra Civil Española (1936-2021) (Crítica), where he explains that, through monuments in public spaces, Franco manipulated memory. This August he has seen that his research, in which he denounces how Francoism appropriated a symbol of Christianity, has been used to initiate the process to declare the Creu dels Caiguts in Cáceres an Asset of Cultural Interest.

“I am very proud of my grandmother, of who she was and what she did, even though she must have suffered a lot, and at the same time I am angry about all the silence, because she was never spoken of in my family. I understand they must have done it to protect us and out of fear, but now I want to do everything possible so that people know who Carmen was,” says Àngel González, who contacted ARA after reading the report on Federico García Lorca published in the August 16th edition.

After it was discovered in 1931 that Ullastret had Iberian remains from the 6th to 2nd centuries BC, the Republican Generalitat made an unusual decision for the time: to protect the site without even having started any excavation. As explained by the current head of the Ullastret site of the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia, Gabriel de Prado, this was not common practice, but they must have been aware of its importance. “Since then, hundreds of excavations have been carried out, giving the city a dimension that the first researchers little imagined,” says Prado.

The previous plague epidemic in Mallorca had been in 1652. Almost 200 years later, in May 1820, the plague returned to the island. The disease arrived on board a ship from Tangier which clandestinely disembarked on the coasts of Son Servera. Until now, historiography had described it as a late case of classical bubonic plague: the disease transmitted by infected rats and passed on to humans through the bite of rodent fleas. A study led by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), published in the scientific journal the scientific journal PNAS, has overturned the version. The data show that rats had nothing to do with it and that the plague spread directly between humans at a devastating speed.

The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH) has submitted an official written request to the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, demanding the declassification of documents regarding the assassination of the poet Federico García Lorca that the State keeps hidden, on the 90th anniversary of the crime.

The summer of 1936, Federico García Lorca (Granada, June 5, 1898 - between Víznar and Alfacar, Granada, August 18 or 19, 1936) decided to leave Madrid and go to Granada for a short stay. The assassination of the Minister of Finance during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, Calvo Sotelo, on July 13, had left him very uneasy. "July 18 was his saint's day and his father's, and they were going to celebrate it, and also to say goodbye to the family because he was leaving for Mexico with the actress Margarida Xirgu. His intention was to return to Madrid in the autumn, because he was to premiere La casa de Bernarda Alba and publish Poeta en Nueva York", explains journalist and writer Víctor Fernández.

"Lorca is a universal symbol and is alive in the memory of all of us, his work can be found in any library, but of the rest of thousands of murders in Granada there is hardly any information and they must be rescued from oblivion. There is a memory that could not leave the houses for fear of the Civil Guard, the police and the neighbors themselves," points out the archaeologist Francisco Carrión, who has led many of the excavations, including that of the Barranc de Víznar, in Granada.

Journalist Montse Armengou, who has directed many documentaries about silenced and forgotten stories of Francoism victims, recommends Ferma sobre la terra (Edicions 62), by Ascen Capel Cilla, which speaks with a female perspective about the fascist bombings that Barcelona suffered in 1938, in the Gràcia neighborhood. "They are women who in difficult times resist and help each other, in the midst of war they manage to make life prevail over death, they remain firm when everything trembles," says Armengou.

The Palestinian writer Karim Kattan and the Tarragona-born poet and writer Pol Guasch met in Barcelona in May. Guasch then presented one of Kattan's two latest works translated into Spanish, L'Éden à l'aube (2024; El Edén al alba in the Txalaparta edition), which narrates a story of love and desire between two men traveling under a hurricane wind that buries Palestine under sand. Mutual admiration arose. Kattan has read Guasch's work, and what has fascinated him most is his poetry, specifically, La part del foc (Viena, 2021), which was awarded the López-Picó prize.

The journalist Xavier Grasset, who currently presents La Selva on TV3, recommends The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Dublin, 1854 - Paris, 1900). The novel's plot premise is brilliant and perverse at the same time: since Dorian Gray does not want to grow old, nor does he want to be disfigured by the mark of the experiences that living entails, he manages to preserve himself as he is – beautiful, young, and attractive – while his portrait becomes deformed and repainted with all the moral corruption and all the abjections that his soul accumulates.

When the Irish writer Audrey Magee (Enniskerry, 1966) was 18 years old, she went to live in Germany for a few months. "I had grown up with a very simplistic Anglo-American view of the war and of Germans: the idea that everything that had happened was because 'they were German,' as if it were an inherent condition and not the result of a political structure," she explains. It was the beginning of an idea she would mull over until she wrote her first novel, The undertaking, which has been translated into Catalan by Josefina Caball and published under the title El compromís (Periscopi / Sexto Piso). Living among Germans dismantled her prejudices: “I realized that they were extremely kind people, who had no horns or devil's tail.” It was the 80s and there were things that the author of La colònia (Periscopi) recognized because they were shared. "There was the silence that I understood perfectly because I had grown up with it, and the silent reproach of children who had inherited the legacy of the Holocaust," she says.

Upon the end of the Civil War, the Special Documentation Delegation of the Francoist apparatus confiscated tons of administrative documentation from the Generalitat and various entities with a clear repressive purpose. Among this documentation were the papers of the Generalitat's Subsidy Office, with the name, political affiliation, place of birth, and the fronts and columns where 37,002 militiamen and women had fought. Whether men or women, and regardless of their rank, they earned 10 pesetas daily. This documentation, after a long and intense mobilization of Catalan civil society, returned to Catalonia in 2006. It was the first intake, of 500 bundles, that arrived at the National Archive of Catalonia (ANC). This collection has made it possible for the Memorial Democràtic, with the collaboration of the archive, to create a public database of militiamen."With this tool, relatives and researchers will be able to find the life trajectories of their relatives," assures historian Gonzalo Berger, doctor in contemporary history from the University of Barcelona and specialist in militias. Berger has led the research that culminates eleven years of research initiated with his doctoral thesis. The human value of this tool is evident in testimonies like that of Marta Domper, who for years searched for proof of the history of her great-uncle, Joaquim Domper. "Sometimes I had even asked myself if he had really existed – she explains–. At home, my great-uncle had always been spoken of as a hero. He was from the CNT and went as a volunteer to fight against the rebels." Afterwards, he went to France to fight with the Resistance and never returned to Spain.

In the late 14th century, Barcelona had a network of care centers for the most disadvantaged, but they had become too small and inefficient. The black plague and crop-damaging plagues took a terrible toll: around 1340 the city had about 40,000 inhabitants, but by the mid-15th century the figure had fallen to 20,000; that is, it had lost 50% of its inhabitants in just one century. "More than an absolute degradation, the real problem was the lack of efficiency," explains Antoni Conejo, an art historian specializing in medieval architecture and hospitals. Faced with this, it was proposed to merge six of these small centers into a single institution: the Hospital de la Santa Creu. The first stone was laid on April 17, 1401, 625 years ago. The official foundation took place on September 5 of the same year with the authorization of Pope Benedict XIII. The great hospital was one of the first, if not the earliest, on the European continent to promote a merger of this type. The black plague and plagues that damaged crops caused real havoc: around 1340 the city had about 40,000 inhabitants, but by the mid-15th century the figure had fallen to 20,000; that is, it had lost 50% of its inhabitants in just one century. "More than an absolute degradation, the real problem was the lack of efficiency," explains Antoni Conejo, an art historian specializing in medieval architecture and hospitals. Faced with this, it was proposed to merge six of these small centers into a single institution: the Hospital de la Santa Creu. The first stone was laid on April 17, 1401, 625 years ago. The official foundation took place on September 5 of the same year with the authorization of Pope Benedict XIII. The great hospital was one of the first, if not the earliest, on the European continent to promote a merger of this type.

When the old municipal courts on Passeig de Lluís Companys were demolished, between 2018 and 2019, a large necropolis from the 9th and 10th centuries with 123 burials was discovered. At that time, no associated temple was found. Nevertheless, documentation from the 12th century indicates that the church of Santa Eulàlia del Camp could be found in this area of Barcelona, where some sources—although there is a great debate open—claim that the remains of the city's historical patron saint were originally buried. Those findings are just the first chapter. The excavations will continue for two more years. When archaeologists have unearthed and documented everything the site hides, at the beginning of 2028, the construction of the new headquarters of the Barcelona Court will begin. The new building will not be a reality until 2031. "We have to excavate about 6,000 square meters and, so far, we have done 2,000," explains the head of the excavations, Jordi Chorén. Josep Pujades, head of the Archaeology Service of Barcelona, highlights that the necropolis is much more extensive and, in fact, its limits are unknown.

History has left little trace of the Ceretans, apart from the toponym of Cerdanya. One of the few clues available was provided by the Greco-Roman historian Cassius Dio, who explains how, in 39 BC, the Ceretans revolted. He mentions them in relation to the setback suffered by the governor of the province of Hispania Citerior, Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, in the Pyrenees. His men suffered an ambush, fled helter-skelter, and abandoned their lieutenant. Calvinus severely punished the troops by mustering the army and executing one in every ten soldiers by lot. The severity of the punishment was what sparked the interest of historians, as it had not been applied for a long time. Once discipline was restored, Calvinus marched against the Ceretans, definitively subdued them, and confiscated their gold to celebrate his triumph in Rome in 36 BC. Afterwards, the Roman commander played a rather important role in both Emporiae and Tarraco.

Between May 27 and 30, 1976, the paranimph of the University of Barcelona brought together more than three thousand women who crowded a space where current legislation today indicates a maximum permitted capacity of four hundred people. The success of the First Catalan Women's Days was overwhelming. Women came from a dictatorship that had relegated them and aspired to many changes. Furthermore, they went hand in hand with the most diverse social and political sectors. Fifty years after that milestone, the Filmoteca de Catalunya has not wanted to limit itself to an exercise in historical nostalgia, but rather proposes a dialogue between generations and an inspiration to imagine futures. The exhibition Filmic Feminisms 1976-2026, curated by Alexandra Laudo, with the advice of Anna Solà and Marta Selva and the film editing by Pilar Monsell, demonstrates how the camera can break down walls and inspire new futures. It can be visited until November 29.

After a breakup, the protagonist of Principi, mig, fi (Angle/Feltrinelli; with Catalan translation by Elisabet Ràfols Sagués), goes to Sicily with her teenage daughter and a tile from a mosaic depicting the god Proteus that her grandmother "stole" from a dig site. With a host of mythological and classical references, the mother seeks how to start anew and establish a new bond with her daughter. The writer Valeria Luiselli (Mexico City, 1983) is also the author ofLos niños perdidos (2016), in which she recounts her experience as a translator for migrant children in New York, Los ingrávidos (2011) and Arxiu dels infants perduts (2024).

In 218 BC, the Carthaginian general Hannibal undertook a daring action to surprise his bitter enemy, Rome: he crossed the Alps with 40,000 soldiers, 7,000 horses, and 37 war elephants with the intention of invading Italy. For centuries, historians and archaeologists have debated which mountain pass the Carthaginian army used. An interdisciplinary study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has launched a new theory with a highly innovative approach: bioenergetics. The research, led by the University of Oxford and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, indicates that the Col de la Traversette, located at an altitude of 2,914 meters on the current border between France and Italy, was the chosen route because it required less energy consumption, especially for the elephants.