Zaragoza

This book about Zaragoza, written and illustrated by José Luis Cano, introduces a gallery of characters, some very popular while others practically unknown, who have left their mark in this city of Aragón. The brief prologue immediately entraps us in the book:

In the beginning there was the cierzo. Then came the Roman legions and the Virgen del Pilar. Since then, Zaragoza has been a city of priests and military officers, a city split into nuns and ensigns, a real strict stepmother.

Zaragoza dispenses of chronological alignment, and the 80 very brief sketches, accompanied by their corresponding portraits, are organised according to the chain system that connects each new character to their immediate predecessor. Whether by coincidence or paradoxical design, on opposite ends there are two people not born in Zaragoza. The list is opened, needless to say, by the Virgen del Pilar, who visited Zaragoza on 2 January 40 A.D. to meet with the apostle Santiago, who was camping near the river Ebro, and to whom she left a jasper column as testimony of her visit. The list is closed by Antonio Fernández Molina, poet and painter, “who came to Zaragoza with his wife, Josefa Echeverría, so their six daughters could study at the school of some family friends, the Labordeta family, and stayed there forever. Which says a a great deal in favour of the city".