The work, published by Aragonese publishing house Xordica, brought together a collection of caricatured portraits filled with irony, tenderness and absurd situations. Its pages featured figures closely linked to Aragonese culture, including Luis Alegre, Javier Tomeo, Félix Romeo, Luis García Abrines and Emilio Gastón.
Among the most curious scenes was Luis Alegre kissing Penélope Cruz in Madrid’s Malasaña district, while Javier Tomeo was welcomed in his hometown by a marching band. The book also featured writer Félix Romeo, who had recently died at the time, whom Labordeta imagined as a hurricane or tsunami capable of sweeping away all the bad books.
The humor continued with his brother Miguel, who was always late for football; Luis García Abrines, who handed out blessings in Paris disguised as a bishop; and Emilio Gastón, who accidentally set his neighbors’ underwear on fire.
According to Xordica at the time, Labordeta had written those character sketches out of affection and admiration for their subjects. Beneath the grotesque and absurd situations lay a tenderness that defined his understanding of friendship.
Mercado Central thus revealed one of the Aragonese author’s most personal and entertaining sides, shaped by his passion for literature and for those who had shared his life. This is how we reported it in Aragón Digital 15 years ago, when José Antonio Labordeta’s final work reached bookstores, unveiling his most humorous and endearing portraits.
