Living in the city is a hot topic. Maybe that’s the big problem that awaits, many people theorize about the concept, but few get into the mud and get wet or dirty. The city as an idea of society is a concept that the Pre-Socratic already had in mind. The concept of the city as a social space must be reconsidered in today’s world, where we are more connected than ever with new technologies, but also more isolated. In a way, digital social networks are the agora of the 21st century, the social place where discussion spreads around the world, replacing the space used for discussion, confrontation of debates and reaching agreements. Maybe that’s a good thing the internet brings, maybe the only advantage of globalization is that ideas travel from place to place in a tenth of a second, almost at the speed of light.
Written by Cristina Guirao, published by Murcian publishing house Nescastle, Crónicas a contrapelo is not a travelogue, but explores the sociological aspects and idiosyncrasies of cities. In this book, the author examines each field very precisely from his own point of view, and perhaps from the perspective of others he sees as masters. We see the prism of writers like Calvino, Plato, Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, Marx… This is a sociological-philosophical vision of living in the world. The world as we know it today has undergone a great transformation, and these writers Guirao speaks of know not only this highly interconnected society, but also, as mentioned earlier, a very isolated society. The isolation of these thinkers may be due to other problems, other different dilemmas.
This work is divided into sixteen chapters and a preface; In it, the author not only describes various cities (Venice, Paris, Naples, Pompeii, Buenos Aires, Toledo, Sicily, Santiago …) as a visitor, but also analyzes and conveys his feelings. This is a book that can be used as a unique travel guide. Guirao is a keen analyst of her environment and is her epitome as a writer, researcher and woman who travels and seeks answers in this wonderful little book. With his perspective and knowledge, Guirao engages us in his way of thinking and acting, and also broadens our vision of a society as technological as ours.
Newcastle has once again added a book of beauty and intellectual power to its catalog. The diaries are the work of a thinker who lived through the transition between the 20th and 21st centuries with an innovative vision, but also with memories of antiquity. Perhaps I am the least fit to analyze Guirao’s work. Cristina, along with María José Picó, were the two teachers who influenced me the most in secondary and high school. I recognize Guirao’s voice in this book. A summary of all those teachings, lectures, where philosophy, sociology, anthropology and humanism come together to give some light to students who are afraid to leave that cave that Plato talked about. This is a book that uses travel as an excuse to teach a humanism lesson on how human beings live or actually survive in society. Cristina Guirao deftly dives into the human dilemma between being and being, because that’s what we do. Living is not the same as living in the city. As Machado said, some pass and others stay.