The family of Josep Lluís Ortega Monasterio sues against 3Cat for the documentary 'Murs de silenci'

GironaLast November 3Cat broadcast Walls of Silence. Large Scale 2000, a three-part documentary that was directly linked to the figure of the famous habanera singer-songwriter Josep Lluís Ortega Monasterio (1918-2004) with Antolín Fernández, a pimp convicted of theft, violence, and illegal prostitution. Faced with these serious accusations, the composer's family has decided to take legal action against the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA) and has filed a complaint against their ancestor's right to honor, which has already been admitted for processing.

In the documentary, made by journalists Anna Teixidor and Marc Faro, the spotlight is placed on the luxury brothel in Ventalló from the 1990s, Gran Escala 2000. It is said to have been frequented by the elite, and it is explained that underage girls were exploited there. The establishment was owned by Antolín Fernández and his sister. The family claims that the report infers that the author of legendary songs such as My grandfather He appears as a regular customer of the establishment and as a sort of shadow owner of another brothel in Huesca (El Txoco), also run by Fernández.

3Cat, the heirs are demanding compensation of one million euros, which they will use to promote the singer-songwriter. The first preliminary hearing is scheduled to take place after the summer, and the family is asking for the utmost speed. No court ruling against

To defend the singer-songwriter's innocence, the family refers to the court rulings against the clubs involved. "In the trials against Txoco and Gran Escala 2000, which ended with the owners being convicted, neither Ortega Monasterio nor his wife were ever called; they weren't even summoned as witnesses," argues Koldo Ortega Monasterio, the musician's grandson. Beyond the lawsuit against 3Cat, he has launched a social media support campaign to restore his grandfather's prestige.

The family argues that Ortega Monasterio, when he was a soldier in Huesca, was the victim of a plot by the Francoist army, as he was of a progressive ideology, close to the Democratic Military Union (UMD), and they wanted to remove him from the force with a court of honor. "The only evidence from TV3 linking my grandfather to the brothel in Huesca are the manipulated Civil Guard reports used by Franco's military in the 1960s to discredit him," argues the grandson, who also recalls that, after the transition, the National Court declared the report null and void.

As for the witnesses who appear in the report, the family claims they are taken out of context and distorted. A woman who worked at Txoco participates and says she recognizes Ortega Monasterio in a photograph and shudders, and a Huesca resident recounts being offered a job at the bar and discovering it was a brothel. "The woman was only there for three days and knew my grandfather from the village, and the man was a friend of my grandfather and thought they were making a tribute documentary about him," says Koldo Ortega Monasterio.

Likewise, the documentary implicates Ortega Monasterio's wife, Pura Gastón, in the plot, as she owned the property where Txoco was located and ran an employment agency in Barcelona, ​​​​through which allegedly some girls, also minors, arrived at Antolín Ferná's clubs. "My grandmother didn't know what they did in that place; when it was discovered, she didn't want to know anything. And the employment agency was for cleaning women, painters, or plumbers. The witnesses who appear in the documentary couldn't have come from my grandmother's agency because they are from the 90s, and at that time, she had already closed the company."

For now, those responsible for the documentary remain silent pending the trial. However, the journalistic sector has expressed its support for the investigation. The documentary has been awarded Best Television Work at the 16th Rahola Awards, sponsored by the Girona Provincial Council and the Girona Association of Journalists.