Vicenç Villatoro resigns as director of the Democratic Memorial

Vicenç Villatoro has announced his desire to resign as director of the Democratic Memorial for personal reasons, to devote himself fully to journalistic tasks and literary creation. The Minister of Justice and president of the Memorial's governing board, Lourdes Ciuró, will propose the name of Enric Pujol as the new manager. The relief is expected to take effect at the beginning of October. Ciuró wanted to thank Villatoro for the work done during this time" at the head of the Democratic Memorial, and expressed his desire to continue counting on his collaboration in future activities. Pujol was until now director of the Exile Memorial Museum (MUME) in La Jonquera.

Pujol holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), and is a journalist. Until now he has been a professor at this university, assigned to the Department of Modern and Contemporary History, and has been part of the Scientific and Pedagogical Council of the MUME since 2009. He is also a full member of the Historical-Archaeological Section of the Institute of Catalan Studies since 2016.

One of the major centers of interest in his career has been the theme of exiles and the Civil War. He also accumulates extensive knowledge in the field of historiographical study in different areas, with the publication of numerous books, and has been the curator of several exhibitions on other characters and periods of contemporary Catalan history.

He was director of the House of the Generalitat in Perpignan (2004-2005). Likewise, he was responsible for an Area of History and Contemporary Thought which led him to assume responsibility for the Center for Studies of Contemporary Issues and the Center for Contemporary History of Catalonia. He was also part, in different periods, of the Governing Board of the Democratic Memorial.

According to the Minister of Justice, Pujol will be an "excellent director due to his knowledge of the institution, his career as a historian and his experience in the field of memory policies".

For his part, Villatoro thanked, in a communication to the members of the Memorial's Governing Board, "the support and trust in an enormously intense and satisfactory period". He also thanked Ciuró, the General Directorate of Democratic Memory and the entire team for "their work, dedication and professionalism".