Victor de la Serna with comedian Carlos Latre.
Credit: Carlos Latre, facebook.
One of the biggest names in the history of world journalism, Victor de la Serna, has died at age 77.
Master of Spanish journalism, respected around the world for his no-nonsense writings, the best writer on gastronomy and wine for 50 years, and a keen hand when it came to sports, passed away shortly after suffering a heart attack. The much-loved columnist who led the way in post-Franco Spain suffered a debilitating heart attack at the entrance of the El Mundo building in Madrid.
De la Serna was one of the founding fathers of El Mundo and helped found the publication in 1989 and, with it, project Spain onto the world stage as a cultural and intellectual powerhouse respected globally in the wake of the 36-year dictatorship of Franco. Never mincing his words, de la Serna was one of the only journalists from the get-go to dismiss the official story behind the Madrid bombings in 2004, stating what most journalists thought but were too afraid to voice.
His swan-song article for the newspaper was titled ‘What is journalism?’ In answer to his own question, de la Serna recently commented that ‘People are confusing journalism with something else. For many, a journalist is now a gentleman who goes out chatting about celebrity gossip on a television program. This perception installed in society makes it difficult for the profession to ever recover the prestige it had.’
‘There is no journalism without democracy; there is no democracy without journalism’
Always the standard bearer for free journalism, he continued, ‘If democracy exists, journalism will survive, but if there is no true information, democracy will not survive. There is no journalism without democracy; there is no democracy without journalism.’
More recently, he complained that the journalism that survives does so with many fewer real writers, ‘because they can’t bear the expenses.’ He said, ‘I define myself as a journalist. And in my area of activity is as a columnist. I am a critic. Not only on gastronomy but also sports. I’m an English speaker, and I don’t like influencers, foodies, or Instagrammers. They are just fads.’
