All for travel books

On December 29, the Farsi language edition of “Ali Baba’s Cave” was presented in Tehran. “Iran day by day”, one of the two books – the other was “Black on black” – that Ana María Briongos dedicated to the Persian country, where she lived for almost ten years. A time in which she also spent long stays in Afghanistan, the subject of another book, “A trip to Kandahar.” India, where she did not live, but much of whose extensive biography she covered, she stars in “This is Calcutta”!

These works, without exception, exude rigor, passion for dissemination and, above all, a lack of prejudice and bias. For all these reasons, “Ali Baba’s Cave” could be translated; not because of any non-existent favorable inclination of the author towards the Islamic Revolution. Briongos’ objective was clear: to provide the reader with first-hand and verified information; and, above all, to entertain him.

These were objectives that she achieved with flying colours and which she later extended to the numerous radio and television discussions in which she participated – Fernando Sánchez Dragó included her in a programme dedicated to Iran and Afghanistan – whether they were in Spanish or Catalan: once again the constant desire not to be locked into prejudices and to opt for the inclusive path.

Mas Briongos did not forget his hometown, Barcelona, ​​evoked in a children’s mystery novel, the subject of a documentary whose script he wrote and a television program. More recently, in addition to his trips – one of the last was to Nigeria -, he dedicated himself, in collaboration with the “Bayt al-Thaqafa” Foundation, created by the nun Teresa Losada, to transmitting his knowledge to immigrant children settled in Barcelona. A work that he combined with others of a more scientific nature, such as his membership in the Spanish Geographic Society.