Читать книгу The Notebook - José Saramago - Страница 40

Over the past few days Judge Garzón has been made the object of target practice. Even those who defend him would argue that his personality is controversial, as if we were each obliged to be identical to our next-door neighbor. . . The thing is that Garzón, with his highly individual edicts, is the judge who has given the most joy to those who—in spite of everything—expect a lot from justice, or, to be more accurate, from those tasked with administering it. Following some complaints that were brought to his attention, Garzón waded into an issue that is bigger than he and all judicial institutions are put together: the Spanish Civil War, the illegality of Francoism, the dignity of those who defended the Republic and an entire way of life. He knows that he might have to abandon the battlefield, but he will have left the doors open for certain truths to be recognized, and for the dead to be identified and, ultimately, decently buried. The Spanish transition, a period that was lived through in the hope of what might be possible, is not a safe conduct: the left yielded because military and civilian Francoism were beginning to appear. But they did not give up, they didn’t say, “This is the last word,” they simply waited for the day to come when they could count their dead and call things by their proper names. Garzón has used his position of authority to help, and no one felt greater joy at this than the war victims who have managed to survive to this day.

Judge Garzón is no partisan. He understands that nothing human can be alien to him, and he delves into matters he considers to be criminal because he has the authority to do so. He also wonders whether torturers have souls, which is more than enough of an indication that he approaches an analysis from both sides. A few months ago he asked me to write a prologue for a piece of work he had carried out with the journalist Vicente Romero. This, I repeat, was an investigation into the behavior of torturers. I enthusiastically recommend reading this book— El Alma de los Verdugos [The Torturers’ Soul], published by RBA—and until you have a copy in your hands I shall leave you with these lines that I wrote in the manner of a prologue for Baltasar Garzón and Vicente Romero.