Barcelona Llibres

Soc la Dolors Aleu is a posthumous diary, which means it is mainly made up, but not entirely. The author has put together a unique perspective of the life of a doctor, woman, mother and wife from Barcelona, based on the little material that survived the death of the first woman doctor in Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain. It is an agile text with sparks of humour that combines Aleu’s personal story with the history of humanity, weaving biographical facts together with feelings, thoughts, scientific information, medical trivia, historical reflections and intimate confessions dedicated to everyone.

This diary plays with time, moving forwards and backwards accompanied by contemporary illustrations created using the few photos of the book’s protagonist in existence. It is an innovative approach to the biography of Dolors Aleu, as well as an engaging, fresh, highly visual creation that thoroughly and carefully revives and recreates a feminine and feminist story that, like Dolors, has been buried for years.

In the first person, Dolors tells us about her life, studies and experiences as a gynaecologist and GP, as a friend, mother, daughter and wife: her experiences as a woman, ultimately. We have imagined her like this, with these words and these colours. The information is real (or at least backed up with documentary evidence). Some dates are accurate, others are assumed. Of course, the perceptions are all pure fantasy. Using the few texts Dolors Aleu wrote and the six surviving photos of her, we have tried to stand in her shoes and look through her eyes. Dolors was the first woman doctor in Spain (she qualified in 1882) and, almost by accident, a feminist, and her story is a fascinating one.