As part of the commemmoration of the 120th birth anniversary of writer Sebastià Juan Arbó, the UAB held on Thursdat 26 October the 1st Congress on Sebastià Juan Arbó, inaugurated the day before in Amposta, on Wednesday 25 October. Joan Antoni Forcadell, predoctoral researcher of the UAB Department of Spanish Studies and member of the group GEXEL, was in charge of inaugurating the congress, which took place at the Sala de graus of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
The event began with a brief presentation and explanation of the research conducted on the works of the writer Arbó by Joel Reverter and Joan Antoni Forcadell. In the words of Joel Reverter "We observed the need to re-edit the narrative written by the author Sebastià Juan Arbó. During our research we noticed errors, textual problems, and a lack of philological criteria. A new work and study had to be carried out to rewrite the texts cured of orthographic and philological errors".
Albert Aragonès, a Catalan language teacher, writer and graduate in Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona, then presented his study "Les cançons en l'obra de Sebastià Juan Arbó" [Songs in the Works of Sebastià Juan Arbó], a work divided into two parts. Firstly, a description of the songs included in the author's narratives and plays. And a second part of documentation and location of these musical pieces, while highlighting that the coplas were predominantly of 4 verses, except for the existence of some coplas of 6 verses and traditional coplas.
Joan Antoni Forcadell then presented his book "El ángel se durmió de Sebastià Juan Arbó", a critical-genetic edition of the works of the writer Arbó. To quote the author himself, "It is a pleasure for me to be able to present the book at this congress and at the UAB. What first began as a final degree project has now become a solid project". He also thanked the Amposta awards that provided him with the necessary resources to finish the writing process of the novel.
The second part of the event was attended by the editor and writer Emili Rosales, as well as by Roc Salvadó and Marta Matas, speakers at the congress, and finally, as part of the closing of this first edition, attendees were able to visit the exhibition "The stories of Sebastià Juan Arbó: from manuscripts to the printed edition" located in the Journals Hall of the UAB's Humanities Library.
