In 1991, Manuel Fraga, president of the Xunta of Galicia, former Francoist minister, and founder of the People's Party, surprised Spain and the world by visiting Fidel Castro in Cuba during the darkest days of the Special Period. The following year, Castro returned the visit to Galicia, where they ate octopus and queimada (a traditional Galician drink) and played dominoes with his host. Both cited realpolitik as the reason for these meetings, but it was clear that, beyond that, there was a rapport between them capable of bridging the ideological gap that initially separated them, a gap that could be explained by some shared experiences: a religious mother, having been educated by Spanish Jesuits, and a decisionist approach to politics. Fraga even went so far as to say that, had he stayed in Cuba, where he spent part of his childhood, he himself could have been Fidel Castro.

That is the title of Pablo Batalla's essay, I Could Have Been Fidel Castro, which tells this unique and not sufficiently told or analyzed story, around which the colloquium will revolve, in which, in addition to the author, Aída dos Santos and Jorge Tamames also participate.