Last week Grupo Transfronterizo hosted the launch of Francisco Oliva's new book​​ 'El Niño De La Verja' at the GGCA premises. 

A statement follow below:

The Grupo Transfronterizo hosted the launch of a new book by local writer and journalist F Oliva at the GGCA premises on Thursday November 6^th.

‘El Niño de la Verja’ is his sixth book, volume one of a trilogy of autobiographical memoirs which examines his childhood recollections during the closed frontier years, and the trips to Spain during family school holidays, which required a transcontinental sea journey to Tangier and back to Algeciras.

The book covers the period 1969-1982, the author’s childhood and adolescence, formative years where he discovered two of his lifelong obsessions – other than words – rock ‘n’ roll records and cinema. 

There were other treats which made those holidays special; the motorbike races at the Circuito Municipal where he saw legendary riders like Angel Nieto, Benjamin Grau and Victor Palomo, the first football matches he attended, seeing big Spanish and European teams in the Trofeo Ciudad de la Linea, and the brilliant Salones Recreativos, where he was a llanito ‘pinball wizard’ and mastered the art of the futbolin in competition with other local kids his age.

Although the book is in great measure an exercise in nostalgia and a desire to retrieve a lost age which in many ways was vastly superior to the modern one, there is also a serious political point as the author wholeheartedly endorses Chief Minister Fabian Picardo’s incredible diplomatic achievements to secure a safe, cross border treaty with UK, Spain and the EU. 

In a prologue that recalls Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ he also argues that we could not afford to miss the train a second time, an allegorical reference to all the great hopes and positive words uttered when the frontier opened fully in 1985, and which led to very little. “This time it not a steam engine but a high speed train that is passing by our doorstep. We cannot afford not to be on it, preferably in the first class compartment,” he declared.

The book has been published by Estudio Ediciones, a Madrid publishing house. 

The event was introduced by Grupo Transfronterizo president Darren Cerisola, and closed by Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, who thanked Paco for always making him think with his newspaper columns over the years. Paco’s talk was divided in two parts a Spanish section and an English section, to highlight the critical importance of bilingualism, unapologetically defending the need for excellence in both English and Spanish, a topic he examined in some detail. 

He started working in the Gibraltar Chronicle in 1984 as a novice reporter and hasn’t stopped writing since, covering many styles, many genres but always focused on the search for the right word, for the right set of words – an obsessive pursuit for any writer worth that title.

He spoke in some length delving into what being Gibraltarian means to him, important things we have lost along the way and important things he would like to see restored.

He also questioned why he had never been invited to appear at the Gibunco Literary Festival, despite being one of the few born and bred Gibraltarian professional writers still active after 40 years, challenging both the Ministry for Culture and Gibraltar Cultural Services to explain the reasons for this ‘cancellation.’