Pérez-Reverte opens postponed Spanish Civil War forum in Seville after months of boycott threats

Opening after an eight-month delay

On Monday, 5 October 2026, the eleventh edition of the Letras en Sevilla forum opened at Fundación Cajasol under the title '1936: La guerra que todos perdimos' (1936: The war we all lost). Co-coordinated by writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte and journalist Jesús Vigorra, the four-day event brings together 49 participants from across Spanish politics, academia, and journalism. The conference was originally scheduled for 2 to 5 February 2026, marking 90 years since the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, but was postponed after novelist David Uclés withdrew over the planned attendance of former prime minister José María Aznar and former Vox secretary general Iván Espinosa de los Monteros. Subsequent withdrawals by Izquierda Unida leader Antonio Maíllo, Andalusian socialist politician María Márquez, and Council of State president Carmen Calvo forced organizers to suspend the winter schedule.

Strategy of secrecy and renewed pressures

To prevent another campaign of boycotts from cancelling the rescheduled event, organizers kept the speaker list confidential until Sunday, 4 October. On Sunday afternoon, banners were hung outside the Fundación Cajasol headquarters displaying the names of all 49 speakers alongside imagery of burning Republican and Nationalist flags. During his opening address on Monday morning, Pérez-Reverte stated that several scheduled speakers had received fresh pressure that very morning urging them to pull out. He also addressed the event's title, acknowledging that adding question marks in February had been a concession to protect the foundation, which critics had nicknamed 'Fachasol' during the earlier dispute.

We let the controversy pass and this time we had the astuteness to keep quiet like foxes until today. It did not give them time to organize another boycott.

Programme structure and political participants

The forum runs through 8 October, combining daily morning film screenings at 12:00 with afternoon panel sessions starting at 18:00. Fundación Cajasol president Antonio Pulido stated that the institution seeks to provide spaces where diverse viewpoints can be presented with mutual respect. The participant roster includes current government ministers Félix Bolaños and Ángel Víctor Torres, former Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena, former justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, and politicians Borja Sémper and Tania Sánchez. Historians Julián Casanova, Juan Pablo Fusi, and Enrique Moradiellos are scheduled alongside journalists Ana Pastor, Nativel Preciado, and Juanma Lamet. Organizers also compiled statements from 29 public figures, including Manuel Azaña, Adolfo Suárez, and Felipe González, supporting the thesis that the war caused losses across all sectors of Spain.

The goal is for people who think differently to talk in an educated manner and without fighting.

Panel on women and wartime memory

The first afternoon session featured a panel titled 'Mujeres en guerra', examining the female experience of the 1936 conflict. Jesús Vigorra opened the discussion by noting that women author only 8% to 10% of published books about the Spanish Civil War. Author Azahara Palomeque explained that women served as guardians of memory who bore the unresolved trauma of managing the loss of male relatives while being stripped of basic rights under the subsequent dictatorship. The panelists, including authors Ana Romero Galán and Susana Fortes, discussed how women were reduced to domestic roles and faced economic expropriation by Francoist authorities. Romero Galán noted that Spanish society still lacks a clear understanding of the conflict, pointing out that half of the war's casualties occurred away from the front-line trenches.