Los Lara

Few families have marked the Spanish social and business life in such a remarkable way in the last half century as the Lara. José Manuel Lara Hernández founded and made of Planeta a great publishing group that led, like nobody else, the book to millions of homes. His continuity, his son Fernando died prematurely, fell to José Manuel Lara Bosch. This consolidated the editorial group, broke into the media and took relevant positions in various business areas. Its economic power advanced in parallel to its influence in 21st century Spain. As a lover of power as a curious intellectual, his overflowing personality developed in many areas, from business to politics, from education to sports, or from the media to civil society institutions. With his death in 2015 he lost the look, sometimes impertinent, about the Spanish and Catalan society of a man who did not like to be silent. José Martí Gómez, one of the best active journalists in our country, is a profound expert on the Lara’s career since he interviewed the first of the dynasty in 1972, which has been followed by other interviews with the most prominent members of the family and with dozens of people close to them. With this material, Martí Gómez draws a complete portrait of the life of the Lara, from the arrival in Barcelona of José Manuel Lara Hernández at the end of the Civil War to the present day. A portrait, also, of a few decades of Spain in which the unique voice of the Lara was heard.