Diario de Barcelona

Diario de Barcelona is the newspaper for which Miquel Moliner writes during the crisis that engulfs Barcelona. His dwindling place on its staff reflects how political intimidation and wartime instability constrain the press, while his association with the paper eventually helps bring news of Julian Carax's supposed death to Nuria Monfort.

Miquel's Work and the Threats

In the weeks before the Civil War, Miquel is already weakened by illness and struggling to write. He spends only two or three hours a day at his typewriter and produces little; missed deadlines cost him several regular columns. Anonymous threats also make other newspapers reluctant to publish his articles. By this stage, his sole remaining daily column is in Diario de Barcelona, signed under the name Adrian Maltes. The pseudonym preserves a public outlet for his work, but the shrinking number of places willing to print him makes that outlet increasingly fragile.

A Paper in a City at War

The newspaper's precariousness unfolds alongside the uprising and the spread of violence through Barcelona. Miquel hears the news of the uprising in Morocco over the radio; soon afterward, a colleague arrives with news that the paper's editor in chief, Cansinos, has been killed. The events make the danger surrounding journalism immediate: the newspaper is not insulated from the conflict it reports on, and its staff and contributors face the same political violence as the rest of the city.

Miquel's Departure and the Paper's Silence

As Miquel's health worsens and the crisis intensifies, the newspaper's staff tell him that his column will have to be cancelled. He understands their reluctance to invite trouble, but the decision removes his last regular platform at the paper. His work there thus traces a narrowing path from several columns to one, and finally to none, as illness, missed deadlines, and political pressure converge.

The Newspaper as a Link in the Later Account

After Miquel's death, the newspaper remains part of the chain through which the concealed identity of the dead man is uncovered. Manuel Gutierrez Fonseca, an employee at the morgue, contacts the publishing firm after comparing the dead man's passport with the name of the author of the book found with the body. He explains that he felt morally obliged to report what had happened, despite suspecting that the police had not followed the rules. The call reaches Nuria Monfort at her workplace and alerts her to the official report identifying the body as Julian Carax. Diario de Barcelona is not itself responsible for the false identification; its place in the episode is indirect, through the professional network linking Miquel's world of journalism to the publishing firm and the attempt to recover a suppressed truth.