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Sooner or later, Julio Anguita Parrado would have probably written a book. A book about his experiences as a war correspondent or a book to explain today’s America to the Spaniards, or perhaps a book on the secrets and scandals of the U.S. economy which he had covered thoroughly. Indeed, Julio had many dreams and projects as we, his friends, colleagues, and family in Córdoba as well as his extended and elastic families in Madrid, Italy, New York, could testify to. On April 7, 2003, however, the dreams and projects Julio nurtured for a lifetime were broken forever a few kilometers away from Baghdad.

Shortly after his death, whilst still dazed and bleary with pain in the days of the endless waiting for the repatriation of his body, we began thinking that a collection of the most important articles written by Julio, presented by his closest friends and colleagues, would be the proper way to celebrate his life. Julio’s death was a public and media event. The pain of his family, his friends, that was private, intimate, and intense became a source of national mourning, shared by millions of people. And Julio, who was reserved and shunned publicity and the spotlight, has been thrown into the public arena. Many have written and spoken about him, some even out of turn, without having loved him and sometimes without even knowing him.

With this book, we would like to give Julio back his voice, we would like to look back with his own words from his articles to the main stages of his personal and professional life. In addition to Julio’s articles you will find a long and in depth interview of Ana Fernandez to Julio’s parents and his siblings, and the moving eulogy that Julio gave at his grandfather’s, Juan Parrado, funeral. . When you read it you will understand a lot about Julio’s history and formation, his principles, his philosophy of life. Julio’s articles are introduced by friends and colleagues who, almost always, were present when he wrote them. We thank each and every one of them, but most of all we would like to thank Julio’s parents and siblings who have given their unconditional support to this project. We would also like to thank El Mundo, which granted the rights to publish his articles. A special thank you from all of us who worked on this book goes to Carlos Fresneda and Ana Alonso who supervised the selection of the articles and patiently coordinated the editorial work of the large and scattered editorial team of Julio Anguita Parrado.

The last photos we have of Julio are the ones that Major Weber took and sent us in the summer of 2003. One of these pictures shows him crouched down next to a wounded Iraqi with his notebook close by. He has a serious yet encouraging expression and I would like to believe that before making use of an interpreter for the interview, he said, smiling at the wounded prisoner, in Arabic, "I am a Spanish journalist, from Córdoba". Julio now rests in his city, the ancient capital of Al Andalus, the city of Osio, Averroes and Maimonides, the caliphate that in the high Middle Ages represented the realization of a utopian dream of peaceful coexistence and religious tolerance among the three great monotheistic faiths. Córdoba, the city where the cathedral is nothing but a part of the majestic mosque and the synagogue is just across the street. From Julio and from the city that treasures him as a precious memory, all of us, his friends, have inherited the hope that those ideals of tolerance and peace may be restored in a not too distant future.