Carlos Bardem, 57 years old, from Madrid, is an actor and writer who has won the Premio Espartaco Award for the historical novel, “Mongo Blanco” (Mongo White), a 600-page work about the slave traffick in the Spanish Colonies during the mid XIX Century.

In “Mongo Blanco,” Bardem narrates the story of Pedro Blanco, a repentant slave trafficker from Malaga, during his last days in a mental hospital in Barcelona.  The novel is based on true events but with a fictional plot, where the author tries to bring to light “Spain’s involvement” in the slave traffick, which is not “part of the national conversation” in the narrative of the country’s history.

“When we talk about black slaves, the image that comes to mind is the cotton fields in the United States, but we never talk about the sugar plantations of Spain’s colonies, which were a lot larger,” said the author in his acceptance speech.

Read the complete interview here: TodoLiteratura