Contra la neutralidad (2011) and La culpa es de los medios (2014), two books by the Spanish journalist Pascual Serrano, were presented at the Theater of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) the afternoon of this Thursday, December 15. .
After the presentation of the director of La pupila asombrada, Iroel Sánchez, who recognized the author of both texts as “a journalist who chooses the side of the humble”, Pascual Serrano Thanked Upec for the invitation and the possibility of living together and during the days of the Third National Press Festival, which is taking place these days, share daily concerns with some colleagues from the union.
The Spanish journalist Pascual Serrano presents his book Against Neutrality at the Upec headquarters. Photo: Nosdiel Bello Montaner/Cubaperiodistas.
Regarding the volume Against Neutrality, who is also director of the A fondo book collection at Akal Verlag, said that it is a text that was born as a “therapeutic need”, that is, with the priority of “finding some hope for the young People, show them that there are positive historical situations and newly updated pasts that could serve as role models during this time.”
For Pascual Serrano, true journalists have a sixth sense that allows them to see where the news really is. With this sixth sense, the analyst not only practiced journalism – as UPEC First Vice-President Rosa Miriam Elizalde said – but also thought extensively about journalism.
The two titles presented at the Casa de la Prensa have the express intention of their author to stimulate a discussion about the engagement of journalists with their time.
Against the supposed neutrality that “the major media appeals for,” Serrano turned to the biographies of John Reed, Ryszard Kapucscinsky, Rodolfo Walsh, Edgar Snow, and Robert Capa, five leading personalities of contemporary journalism, who in one fell swoop of letters and history books and outlined a model of journalism totally opposed to the fleeting and ephemeral practices of much of today’s media.
Pascual believes that similar journalism can be done, that discovers the matrices and colors of information, that deepens and interprets the world, and the proof that it can be done is that books by these authors are still selling and people follow them.
That they have been interested in reading these journalists since the book was published – Serrano said – is one of the greatest satisfactions I could receive.
For his part, Michel Torres, in charge of the Nuevo Milenio publishing house, presented La culpa es de los libros, a title that uses the parable resource he indicated to continually question reality and established social myths.
Weaving relationships between personal experiences and printed letters is Pascual’s homage to some of his readings and an invitation, in times and scenarios where – as he pointed out – “not only is the written press disparaged, but the word is undervalued,” intellectually to grow.
Both books reveal journalistic references that students studying at the different faculties should be aware of, according to Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, President of UPEC.
And one way of not losing the ability to think critically and question reality is through these references that Serrano embodies in his written pages.