The guitarist Pepe Habichuela, a giant of flamenco music from one of the great lineages of cante, has died in Madrid at the age of 82, as reported by El País and confirmed by the delegate for Arts of the Madrid City Council, Marta Rivera de la Cruz. "Pepe Habichuela's guitar is fading, but his music will continue to play wherever flamenco continues to tell who we are," the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez posted on X.

The actor Manolo Solo, one of the most versatile and solid performers in Spanish cinema, died this Thursday from cancer at the age of 62, according to the Spanish Film Academy. Solo won the Goya for best supporting actor in 2017 for the thrillerTarde para la ira, by Raúl Arévalo, and was also nominated as a supporting actor for El buen patrón, Cerrar los ojos and B, la película, and as a lead actor for Una finca portuguesa, for which he was also nominated for a Gaudí. A chameleon-like performer, he could disappear into his characters and navigate from comedy to drama with the security and solidity of gifted actors.

The Irish singer Glen Hansard, who in 2007 won the Oscar for the song Falling Slowly –written for the soundtrack of the film Once–, has died at the age of 56 in a motorcycle accident in Lucan, west of Dublin, as reported by the BBC. Hansard was one of the protagonists of the film The Commitments (1991) and led his own rock band, The Frames, before triumphing with Once, starring Hansard himself and Markéta Irglová, who were also authors of the soundtrack as members of The Swell Season, a folk group that recorded three albums.

Kavinsky, one of the most international figures in French electronic music, known primarily for the massive success of his track Nightcall –included in the soundtrack of the film Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)–, has been found dead by the French police at his home in Paris, as reported by the French newspaper Le Parisien. Police are investigating the possibility that the death is a consequence of a stroke, as in preceding days the musician had suffered very intense headaches. Vincent Belorgey, his real name, was one of the stars of the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games, where he performed a version of Nightcall with the French band Phoenix and the Belgian singer Angèle.

The question was posed by Josep Vallverdú in a poem, and it comes to me readily to answer with a list of responses full of gratitude to this Lleida gentleman: the good things in life are in his sustained work, in his prolific generosity with child and youth readers, in the intelligent good nature that followed him like a perfume, in the wisdom of a recent word, when he said that we must strive to have only "affections and hopes left in the closet", and that "the greater the affections, the closer hopes will be to becoming reality".

"I try to write every day, never to fail", said Josep Vallverdú in 2022, months before turning 99, when he presented one of his latest youth novels, The Eighth Dwarf (La Galera), in which he imagined an alternative version of the popular Snow White. For more than six decades – the ones separating The Fish Seller (Arimany, 1960) and Treasured Silence (Pagès, 2023)– Vallverdú dedicated himself to building, with admirable constancy, rigor, and heterogeneity, one of the most prolific works – exceeding 200 books – in contemporary Catalan literature, which this Tuesday closes with his death at 103 years old, as the ARA has been able to confirm. Death comes to him months after publishing The Return of Rovelló (La Galera, 2025), in which he revived one of the most beloved characters of his work, that of a little dog who got lost in the middle of the woods.

Sadness in the contemporary art sector. Vicente Matallana, the director of the NEWART Foundation and the NEWART Centre in Reus, died on Saturday at the age of 58, as the institution itself has announced. "Matallana was a reference figure in the field of technological art and digital art preservation," reads the NEWART Foundation's statement.

The Barcelona-born writer Luis Goytisolo, the last member of a lineage of writers who renewed contemporary Spanish narrative, died on Sunday at the age of 91 in his rural retreat in Vimbodí, in Conca de Barberà, as reported on Monday at midnight the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), an institution of which he had been an academic since 1995. Goytisolo is the author of an extensive literary work characterized by his capacity for innovation both formally and narratively. One of his most celebrated literary projects is the monumental tetralogy "}Antagonism –formed by the volumes Count, The green of May to the sea, The wrath of Achilles and Theory of knowledge–, which spans from the Civil War to late Francoism and which represented a literary milestone for the narrative of the 70s and 80s. His constant search for new literary territories earned him the National Prize for Spanish Literature in 2013 and recognitions such as the National Literature Prize in 1993 for "Statues with pigeons.

New Zealand actor Sam Neill (Omagh, 1947) has died at the age of 78, as reported by the family in a statement obtained by Reuters agency. With a career spanning over five decades and 150 roles, Neill was best known for starring in films such as Jurassic Park (1993), in which he played paleontologist Alan Grant. Among his most recognized performances are also the farmer in the film The Piano (1993) and Major Chester Campbell in the first two seasons of the series Peaky Blinders (2013-2014). Praised especially for his interpretive versatility, Neill's career was recognized worldwide. The film The Piano, which he starred in with Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Neill was also nominated three times for Golden Globes and once for an Emmy. In 2019 he visited Catalonia to receive the Grand Honorary Prize of the Sitges Film Festival.

The American singer and songwriter Victor Willis (Dallas, 1951), leader of the group Village People, died this Tuesday at the age of 74 after a "brief but aggressive illness," as reported by the band on their Facebook page. Willis was the singer and co-author of some of the group's greatest hits such as YMCA, Go West, Macho Man, and In the navy. The musician embodied characters such as the policeman and the Navy officer within the group's visual aesthetic, based on interpreting male archetypes on stage. Willis's role was fundamental to the configuration of the sound and image with which Village People became an international phenomenon during the 70s and a symbol of queer culture.

Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who led monetary policy in the United States during his five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve (the Fed, the US central bank), died this Monday at the age of 100 from Parkinson's, as reported by NBC News. Greenspan was one of the most influential economists of the second half of the 20th century and one of the most prominent names within the neoliberal economic paradigm that began in the 1970s, which advocated for the independence of central banks, financial deregulation, free trade, tax cuts – especially for large fortunes and companies – and the privatization of public services.

The Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg has died at the age of 87, as reported by the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Born in Turin in 1939, Ginzburg was a meticulous teacher, with an insatiable curiosity, who revolutionized historical studies. He grew up in a home that strongly fueled his vocation. His father, the philologist, journalist, and editor Leone Ginzburg, was a prominent anti-fascist who died tortured by the Nazis in 1944. His mother was the writer Natalia Ginzburg, author of seminal works of Italian literature such as Family Lexicon. The historian would confess years later that his mother's passion for literature, combined with the stories he heard as a child about the persecutions and repression of the war, was decisive for his future.

True to his essence until the end: just over a month ago, the British artist David Hockney, who died this Friday at the age of 88, received the actor Ian McKellen in his studio, as McKellen himself published on his Instagram. Although Hockney had been using a wheelchair for some years, and in the photo he looks quite thin, he maintained his style, with a suit with colored checks and his characteristic horn-rimmed glasses. Hockney dressed as he painted. Furthermore, seeing Hockney and McKellen together implies seeing reunited two of the most important figures in 20th-century British culture, and two unquenchable icons of the gay community, who began working when homosexuality was still a crime in the United Kingdom.

Musician Sonny Rollins, a legendary jazz saxophonist, passed away this Monday at the age of 95 at his residence in Woodstock, New York, as reported by his publicist Terri Hinte in a statement, which was picked up by the Efe agency. Known as the Colossus of the Saxophone, Rollins developed a jazz career that spanned several decades and had its most productive period in the fifties, when he accompanied masters of the genre such as Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, and Miles Davis. During that time, Rollins also recorded his most important albums.

During the 70s and 80s, José María Cruz Novillo, renewed the iconographic imagery of post-Franco Spain. He did not limit himself to creating logos; he built the visual imagery of a society emerging from the lethargy of the dictatorship and aspiring to be modern. Born in Cuenca in 1936, he died just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday. In 2020, Filmin released a documentary that pays tribute to him and allowed many generations to discover him: The Man Who Designed Spain, by directors Andrea G. Bermejo and Miguel Larraya

It so happens that, with a few weeks' difference, two of the great architects of the Tusquets publishing house have died. First was the poet and professor Antoni Marí (1944-2026), who besides being an in-house author had directed the Catalan collection, L'Ull de Vidre, and the poetry collection, Nuevos Textos Sagrados, and this Friday it was its founder and literary director for decades, Beatriz de Moura, according to the publishing house, which said goodbye to her remembering her as "a brilliant and unprejudiced woman, cosmopolitan and feisty, a precursor of so many things and the soul of the publishing house".

Salustià Álvarez, president of the Regulatory Council of the Qualified Designation of Origin Priorat, passed away this Wednesday at noon. Born in Porrera in 1960, Álvarez had worked as an oenologist on various projects, currently the personal one, Álvarez Duran, but also at the Vall Llach winery. He was “the trusted man of Enric Costa and Lluís Llach from 2001 to 2013, in the years when one worked in Vic as a notary and the other was giving concerts,” explains Albert Costa, co-owner of the winery with Isa Serra.The news of Álvarez's death has left the region in consternation; his figure was well-known as a neighbor and also for the various institutional positions he has held. He had been mayor of Porrera, in addition to president of the Regulatory Council of the DOQ Priorat. In a statement released by the DOQ Priorat itself, it is explained that “Salus Álvarez has been a key figure and an indispensable benchmark for understanding the evolution and projection of the DOQ Priorat in recent decades.”

The Valencian poet, narrator, essayist, columnist, and translator, Josep Piera (Beniopa, 1947), has died at the age of 78. He considered himself primarily a poet, but he left a handful of memorable prose books, among which are El cingle verd (Destino, 1982) – for which he won the Josep Pla prize–, Estiu grec (Destino, 1985), and Ací s'acaba tot (Edicions 62, 1993), which the young publisher Cap de Brot reissued in a corrected and expanded version. In 2023, he received the 55th Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes (Honorary Prize for Catalan Literature), awarded by Òmnium Cultural. At that time, he expressed his astonishment at receiving the award and how he understood literature: "I find this writing in the name of everyone to be extraordinarily presumptuous. One writes about what one knows, what one feels, and about oneself. But this must become shareable, symbolic. Otherwise, what the hell can interest others? This is where literature comes in, and I am an animal of words," he stated.

The Valencian poet, narrator, essayist, columnist, and translator, Josep Piera (Beniopa, Gandía, 1947), has passed away at the age of 78. He considered himself primarily a poet, but he left behind a handful of memorable prose books, including El cingle verd (Destino, 1982) – with which he won the Josep Pla award – Estiu grec (Destino, 1985) and Ací s'acaba tot (Edicions 62, 1993), which the young publishing house Cap de Brot reissued in a corrected and expanded version. In 2023, he received the 55th Honorary Award for Catalan Literature, presented by Òmnium Cultural. At that time, he expressed his astonishment at receiving the award and how he understood literature: "This business of writing on behalf of everyone seems extraordinarily presumptuous to me. One writes about what one knows, what one feels, and about oneself. But that must become shareable, symbolic. Otherwise, why on earth would it interest others? This is where literature comes in, and I am an animal of words," he assured.

Without the persistence of the editor Maria Carme Dalmau, we would surely be missing many reference works on the history and heritage of Catalonia today. She worked a great deal, even during the greyness and repression of Francoism, to publicize and make accessible to the public books that explained the country's past, geography, and traditions. And she did so by overcoming very significant legal and economic obstacles. She circumvented censorship by devising a thousand and one stratagems. Born in Barcelona in 1930, the editor died this Thursday at the age of 96.