We celebrated the event ‘Stolen Lessons: the comic’ together with Libros con Memoria.
On Saturday, 24 January 2026, we held the event ‘Stolen Lessons: The Comic’ at the Iván de Vargas Library in Madrid, organised in collaboration with Libros con Memoria, the association that emerged from this project and coordinated by Luis Vivas, a secondary school teacher of geography and history. The event was attended by Luis Vivas himself; Fanny Rubio, Professor of Literature and patron of FIBGAR; Nadia Gayoso, head of the democratic memory and transitional justice department at FIBGAR; and two of the various artists who have contributed to turning Stolen Lessons into a comic book, David Marto and Juanfer Briones.
Nadia Gayoso and Fanny Rubio introduced the event, reflecting on the importance of actively exercising memory in the current times and emphasising the role that young people can play as agents of change today if they get involved in democratic memory beyond studying historical dates and events. They also explored how the comic book version of ‘Lecciones Robadas’ can serve as a tool to bring them closer to memory in a more dynamic and attractive way that in turn encourages creativity and imagination.
On the other hand, Luis Vivas explained where this comic came from and gave a historical overview of the ‘Stolen Lessons’ project. It began as an educational initiative to be developed with his history students, in which he asked them to interview their grandparents to collect testimonies of their experiences during the Civil War, the Franco regime and the transition to democracy. Later, it ended up becoming a book known as ‘Lessons from our grandfathers and grandmothers’. Following its success and seeing the desire of many people to participate in the project, ‘Stolen Lessons: Why Did We Lose Our Memory?’ was published, a book in which Luis Vivas, together with 21 students and more than 60 experts, reconstructs different aspects of 20th-century Spanish history.
Finally, this book has been transformed into ‘Stolen Lessons: the comic’, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of people such as David Marto and Juanfer Briones, who are among the more than 30 cartoonists and illustrators who have contributed to this initiative. Both David and Juanfer explained during the conference that they divided up the work of illustrating the chapters that make up the book ‘Lecciones Robadas’ and that each cartoonist illustrated it in their own way, respecting their working style and trying to maintain the content of the book.
This project is not only important for its historical and testimonial content, which contributes to our country’s democratic memory. It is also a solidarity project supported by the Vinatea Editorial Foundation, a solidarity publishing house that since 2017 has been collaborating with various projects to aid child development, with associations and non-profit organisations working to improve the social conditions of disadvantaged groups and neighbourhoods that have been left out of the circle of prosperity.
Without a doubt, this comic is an opportunity not only to reach younger people, but also to refresh the memory of all those generations whose lessons were stolen and forced to lose their memory. This project is a tool for democratic memory that helps us reflect on where we come from, delve deeper into where we are, and above all, project where we want to go.
