Julia Navarro: "Without us, there is no history."

In an interview, Spanish writer Julia Navarro claims the role of women in history, although it is not always said that they are there, and tries to highlight it in her novel The boy who lost the war with two protagonists who live in two dictatorships, the Soviet one and the Franco one .

"I was thinking of a story (...) that would talk about what totalitarian regimes mean, regardless of their color, because the role of these two women (the Spanish Cleotilde and the Soviet Anya) seemed fundamental to me," Navarro said after presenting her novel, published by Plaza & Janés, in Bogotá.

That's why she adds: " Women are part of history, we have always been there , although it has not always been said that we were there, but without us there is no history."

One of the inspirations the Spanish writer had for her most recent book was the Russian Anna Akhmatova , one of the main representatives of acmeist poetry and remembered for her rejection of Joseph Stalin's regime in the first half of the 20th century.

"I wrote this book because 40 years ago I discovered a poet named Anna Akhmatova, who made me reflect on what the loss of freedom means for creators, writers, painters, and all those involved in any artistic endeavor," says Navarro.

Their characters, Cleotilde and Anya, demonstrate with their talent the discontent they feel in the face of the hopelessness of living under dictatorships and violence that have taken away many things from them, in the case of the Spanish woman, even her son Pablo.

Another central theme of the book, like much of Navarro's work, is displacement , and the 71-year-old Spanish writer argues that "the problem of immigration is not a political or economic problem, it is a humanitarian problem," which is why she wants her voice "to be the voice of those who have no voice."

" There are thousands of people around the world who are fleeing (...) who are leaving their countries, their homes, their families, their lives, fleeing violence, war, hunger, poverty, so raising awareness of what that means seems absolutely important to me," he says.

Navarro points out that "many people arrive at the gates of Europe" and believes it is important to review how they are received, as it is necessary to put oneself "in the shoes of those people who have to leave" their homes.

"We put ourselves in the shoes of someone who has to leave everything behind, unlearn what their life has been like to learn the customs, the language, the culture of the country they're arriving to. If I put myself in those people's shoes, it makes me shudder because I think they have to make a truly titanic effort and that we're incapable of welcoming them and treating them with humanity," he says.

The Spanish writer reminds us that not only are wars in Ukraine and Gaza raging around the world, but there are also more than 20 other active conflicts in which children are suffering and touching society with their perspective.

"We forget the perspectives of so many other children in so many other places where there are currently situations of war and violence. So, it seems a little unfair to me that the focus is only on two conflicts , which are the ones broadcast on television, and the other conflicts happening in other parts of the world are forgotten," he says.

That's why he adds: "I want to say that the children of Sudan are just as important as the children of Ukraine or the children of Gaza, and yet we don't talk about them. But that's our fault. We have to focus on everything that's happening everywhere. There are no wars that are more important."

This also applies, in his opinion, to totalitarian and autocratic regimes, such as those described in The Boy Who Lost the War.

"Totalitarian and autocratic regimes existed last century and have existed in this one. What happens is that now that they're knocking on our doors, we suddenly get scared , but if we were to take a map of how many democracies there are in the world (...) we would realize that there are very few democracies in the world," Navarro concludes.