Ten writers review the history of Spain through its most controversial figures.

The Madrid bookstore Tipos Infames hosted the presentation of Heterodoxos: Ten Uncomfortable Characters from 20th-Century Spain (Editorial Debate), a collective work coordinated by journalist and columnist Emilia Landaluce .

The event brought together the author herself, along with fellow journalists Rosa Belmonte and Charo Lagares , authors of some of the profiles included in the book, in a discussion open to the public in which they reflected on the relevance of historical figures who are difficult to pigeonhole and the value of revisiting them from new perspectives.

Through Heterodoxos , Emilia Landaluce offers an open-minded reading of figures who made their contemporaries uncomfortable by not fitting the dominant narratives of their time. From Julián Besteiro to Mercedes Formica, via José Ortega y Gasset , Federica Montseny, Demetrio Carceller Segura, and Francisco Cambó, the book focuses on those who defied easy labels and whose careers today invite a more nuanced reflection.

During the presentation, Landaluce praised the work's unusual approach, created by "ten contemporary people writing about figures who were uncomfortable in their time ," and noted that this very discomfort sometimes makes it difficult for these figures to be recognized by history. He also emphasized that Heterodoxos is a work "without bias," motivated by his concern about the way history is often interpreted in Spain: "It seems that the Republic comes and destroys all the good that the monarchy did, Francoism comes and destroys all the good that the Republic did ..." In this sense, he asserted the need to recognize that " there is always something good, even in the opposite ," because only from there is consensus possible.

"It's about looking for something good in others, something that's very difficult right now because we're quick to demonize those who think differently."

Rosa Belmonte, author of one of the profiles, noted that Heterodoxos "brings together a series of uncomfortable figures from Spanish history, some more well-known than others. The book helps us better understand those we already know, and, with those we don't, truly discover them. Ultimately, the book also serves to unravel the mystery."

For her part, Charo Lagares praised Landaluce's ambition to seek nuances in times of binary thinking. "This search for something good in the other, something that is very difficult right now because we are so quick to demonize those who think differently , seemed extremely interesting and intellectually honest to me," she explained.

The profiles collected in Heterodoxos have been written by ten authors who accepted the challenge of portraying, from different disciplines and life experiences , ten figures from the history of Spain whom the passage of time has proven impossible to classify. Along with Emilia Landaluce, the texts are written by Carlos García-Mateo, Javier Pérez Jara, Roberto Villa García, José María Rondón, Charo Lagares, Lino Camprubí, José Albert de Paco, Rosa Belmonte and Arcadi Espada. With a prologue by Andrés Trapiello , the work is aimed—as Trapiello himself points out—at “ people without prejudices ,” those willing to be surprised by biographies that are often silenced or reduced to labels that fail to reflect their true complexity.