David Uclés, the regime's writer who has the internet up in arms

David Uclés: writer or political marketing product?

The name of David Uclés has burst onto the Spanish literary scene after winning the 2024 Premio Nadal (a major Spanish literary prize) with 'La ciudad de las luces perecid', but his figure provokes more rejection than admiration. Accused of being a 'performative male' and a 'product of the regime', the author from Jaén concentrates every criticism of officialdom's culture: from his beret-and-beard aesthetic to his promotion on shows like Broncano's, not to mention a literary style described as 'unreadable' and AI-generated. The debate, far from focusing on literary quality, has become a thermometer of political polarization.

A phenomenon that goes beyond literature

What is most surprising about the Uclés case is not his work, but the reaction it provokes. In circles skeptical of the official narrative, he is seen as the embodiment of the 'left-wing intellectual' manufactured by sanchismo (the political movement around PM Sánchez): a young man who, after 15 years of study on the civil war, he claims, is incapable of debating with historians who don't share his views. His book is described as 'a compendium of famous Catalan names' to please the Nadal jury, and his prose as 'that of a ChatGPT imitating Zafón and Laforet'. The fact that the author himself shared the ePub on MediaFire fuels the suspicion that this is more of a meme than a man of letters.

The aesthetics of power: beret, beard and marked accent

Uclés has managed to capitalize on the 'country bumpkin' fashion popularized by Broncano. With his Jaén accent and rural attire, he presents himself as the authentic antihero, but his critics see a calculated pose. In alternative circles they mock his 'scribbling' and compare him to other media intellectuals like Errejón: an idiot who believes his own story. The question about his sensual orientation, raised with euphemisms, also reveals an obsession with unmasking the falseness of his character.

The Premio Nadal as an ideological thermometer

The award, granted by the publisher Destino, has been questioned for its supposed drift toward political correctness. The argument is that Uclés won because he knew how to 'tug at the heartstrings of the boomer jury' with a tribute to Barcelona and Catalan culture. It is not an isolated case: other authors such as Ian Gibson or Paul Preston were already singled out for their biases. But with Uclés the lack of literary quality is so evident that even his defenders admit it: 'The nonsense of Gibson or Preston was not very different, and besides, they weren't trying to write fiction,' one commenter admits.

A debate with no winners

What the analysis makes clear is that David Uclés is not a writer, he is a symptom. A symptom of a culture that rewards ideological loyalty over talent, and of a generation that consumes literature as if it were TikTok content. The question nobody answers is whether this phenomenon is fleeting or whether, on the contrary, we are facing the new Spanish literary canon: that of young adult dystopia with a pogre sarracena. Meanwhile, the only objective fact is that his book can be downloaded for free on MediaFire.

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