It was the fall of 2010. The terrible effects of the crisis were felt everywhere; They had especially been cruel to the working class and the most vulnerable population: unemployment, evictions, debts… It was then that the writer and journalist Rosa María Artal summoned us to a group of people from different social spheres: intellectuals, journalists, economists, judges , social movement activists, commissioned to write a book that would break the dominant discouragement and encourage people to wake up and mobilize.
One of those people was Federico Mayor Zaragoza, a man with an impressive academic resume (he was rector of the University of Granada and professor at the UAM). Doctor of Pharmacy and professor of Biochemistry, science was another of his passions, as well as his concern for education. His career is no less extraordinary, he was director general of UNESCO for 12 years and later created the New Culture of Peace Foundation. A calm and affable man, with a permanent smile, in addition to essays he also wrote poetry.
In April 2011 the book ‘Reacciona’ was published, shortly before the 15M movement emerged. In fact, as Mayor Zaragoza himself would recall years later, at the book presentation in Madrid, before a packed auditorium, a group of young people took the stage to announce the demonstration that would take place on May 15, 2011.
With a prologue by Stéphane Hessel (author of the famous ‘Indignaos!’) and the collaboration of José Luis Sampedro, Baltasar Garzón, Juan Torres, Ángels Martínez i Castells, Ignacio Escolar, Carlos Martínez, Javier López Facal, Javier Pérez de Albéniz, me herself and, of course, Rosa María Artal, tireless soul of this project, we toured squares, neighborhoods, educational centers, cultural centers… That was when I was able to get to know up close Federico and check his efforts in favor of democracy, peace and equality.
“The time has come, then, for action, for freedom of expression, for responsibility,” Federico wrote in his chapter. The 15M, there is no doubt, was an injection of encouragement and morale, which encouraged us to continue working and write new books: ‘Actúa’ (2012) or ‘ReaccionaDOS’ (2015).
During all those years I was lucky to share many times with Federico and to learn many things from him. I remember him angrily denouncing corruption: “We wake up to daily looting,” he said. Especially in current times in which an outrageous fever of war has awakened in the world, his tireless fight for peace, always against war, is more notable than ever.
Federico is gone but his words, his memory, his teachings are still here. Impossible to forget him. Thank you for so much.
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