Huertas met by a group of journalists outside la Model, on 13 April 1976.
Photo: Pepe Encinas.
How can a book about the districts of Barcelona be documented and written from a cell at La Model prison? This is how the journalist, writer and historian Josep Maria Huertas Clavería (Barcelona, 1939–2007) wrote a significant part of the book series Tots els barris de Barcelona [Every District in Barcelona] in the months immediately before and after the death of Franco.
Also taking part in this unique experience were the handful of people who supported Huertas’ work, and who also made it possible to get the parts that had already been finished ready for publishing. Eventually published in 1976 by Edicions 62, the series broke new ground in terms of how life in the city could be covered and the way its districts were defined.
The work of Huertas – a key figure in modern journalism on Barcelona – was noted for its social commitment and its focus on the districts’ problems. In July 1975, he was prosecuted over a sentence in an article that Franco’s military establishment found offensive. His imprisonment led to the first newspaper strike since the end of the Spanish Civil War and to significant public mobilisation in solidarity with him and in defence of freedom of expression.
On the 40th anniversary of these events, Jaume Fabre, a close collaborator of Huertas’ for many years and co-author of Tots els barris de Barcelona, has chronicled this experience for Barcelona Metròpolis.