Jordi Gracia, the literary executioner who destroyed Sonsoles Ónega for his novel: new president of the PRISA Editorial Board

Jordi Graciadeputy to the director of The country, He will be the new president of the Editorial Board of Prisa Media. This was reported by the newspaper itself, which also announced this Friday the Content management by Jose Miguel Contreras. News that comes a few months after Gracia, who was also deputy director of Opinion, set the public debate alight with his devastating review of The maid's daughtersthe latest novel by Sonsoles Onega. Thanks to her, the journalist won the latest Planeta Prize, worth one million euros. However, for the critic this story was nothing more than “a failed serial.” He thus picked it up in Babeliacultural magazine of the medium directed by Pepa Bueno.

It was last November when the essayist and literature professor not only sank Ónega's story, but also charged against the jury in charge of awarding the highest paid award in the Spanish language. “Narrative aberrations are continuous. The inconsistencies too. The capricious antics continue to delirious extremes,” read the review. “The effect left by this latest Planeta Award is devastating: it seems like an intrasystemic act of cultural transgression. Wonderful the capacity of The maid's daughters to de-escalate downwards and without limit in the underground of the novel”, wrote Grace.

Her review and “the feeling of embarrassment” that the award-winning reading left her gave her a lot to talk about for weeks – even Luz Sánchez Mellado herself, columnist and colleague in The country, He criticized the harshness of his assessments. And although Ónega did not delve too deeply into “the damage” that this brutal missile did to him, She did declare that she was not “very sure” that Gracia had actually read her novel.: the text was not taken as a real analysis of The maid's daughtersbut as a kind of personal attack that he did not fully understand.

“I did not know how to understand or identify the interests I served, and while I couldn't identify those interests, it baffled me. I like to have things clear and know who writes and why,” she said. According to her, “there was something else” behind that ruthless criticism: “So I They have been telling yes, since I don't have it confirmed I won't tell it. But I think it exceeded the limits of what is strictly literary, “In part, we're not going to break it down because I'm bored, but I'm not very sure that the critic read that book, or didn't find out about it.”

The professional rise of Jordi Gracia and José Miguel Contreras

The appointment of Jordi Gracia comes two weeks after the death, on January 13, of Miguel Barroso Ayats, member of the board of directors of Grupo Prisa and editorial advisor. “I deeply regret the death of Miguel Barroso. Right now, we are all in shock at the unexpected news. My relationship with him has been magnificent. He has always contributed, both to me and to the board of directors of Prisa, his extraordinary professional experience. I want to convey my deepest condolences to Miguel's family. All members of the Prisa board are mourning the disappearance of a person of great value,” the president of the publisher of Prisa lamented in a statement. The country, Joseph Oughourlian.

Jordi Gracia He is also, apart from what has already been mentioned, co-director of the magazine TintaLibre. He published several books of intellectual history, among them, The silent resistance, Fascism and culture in Spain (which won the 2004 Anagrama Essay Award). He also signed a pamphlet against systematic cultural catastrophism and wrote a biography of Ortega y Gasset and another titled Cervantes.

Now, Gracia will take her place, joining these changes in the communication group's staff. Jose Miguel Contreras, doctor in Journalism from the Complutense University, where he obtained his doctorate cum laude with his thesis Politics and Television, and professor of Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid. Until now he was in charge of advising strategy for the presidency of Prisa itself.

Contreras began his professional career at Radio 3 and in the radio department of UNED. In the eighties, he worked in the Prisa group, as deputy director of Radio El País, editor responsible for the newspaper's radio and television pages and, in 1989, as the first director of Programming at Canal + España.