On a passionate journey through America, Héctor Oliva tells us the stories of six extraordinary lives overseas: Facundo Bacardi, Fèlix Cardona, Ramon Mercader, Gaspar de Portola, Viceroy Amat and Pepe Figueres. Each of the characters came from Catalonia and went to different places on the continent at different times in history.

Oliva is a journalist, travel guide and lecturer at UIC Barcelona, and has presented an adventure halfway between travel book and biography, between Catalonia and America, between journalism and history. The book was first published in 2007 with the title Passatges a Amèrica, winning the Eurostars Prize for Travel Literature, and this is a revised extended edition.

“The character of Gaspar de Portola is a new addition to this edition” explained the lecturer in Political Legal Institutions, “A man who came from Lleida and discovered the Bay of San Francisco.” Oliva says that he has also added new aspects to the other characters that do not feature in the first edition.

The author found inspiration for the book in one of his most outstanding passions: America. He has lived in Peru, giving classes in International Relations at the University of Piura; in Nicaragua, working as a volunteer; and in the Dominican Republic, where he was correspondent of Catalonia Radio for Central America and the Caribbean.

Héctor Oliva is the author of several travel books also translated into Spanish and English, such as 17 cimas (17 Peaks) or Hay dioses en el Olimpo (Gods on Olympus) or even one on football, RCD Espanyol. Historia de un sentimiento (Espanyol FC: The Story of an Emotion)