AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1962)
I have studied biology at the University and I am specialist in Ancient Natural History of insects, collaborator of Zoology Museum of Barcelona and member of the Catalan Institute of Natural History (ICHN). I have spent about forty years studying entomology and I have traveled in several countries around the world. There, I have been witness to the enormous biodiversity that still exists on the planet.
I am the author of two works related to insects, both written in Spanish language and freely available on this site: Bands, swarms and devastation. Locust plagues throughout history (Almuzara, 2007) and Insects and hecatombs, volumes I i II (RBA, 2012 i 2014). In June 2018 appeared Historia de las moscas and de los mosquitos (published by Arpa), and in September 2019 was published my last work, Pasión por los insectos. Ilustradoras, Viajeras, Coleccionistas and Entomólogas (published by Turner), a small history of entomology from the exceptional work of fifty-one women who had dedicated themselves to the study of insects. At the end of this page you will find links to articles and interviews about this work.
In the first work there are described the most dangerous locusts species and the most important pests that man has suffered since Neolithic, just when it started. Second work is a natural history about insects like fleas, lice, mosquitoes, flies, chiggers and also ticks; and descriptions around most of diseases transmitted by them: plague, epidemic typhus, yellow fever, malaria, filariasis, African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, etc. All this stuff has been treated from a medical, entomological and especially historical point of view.
These works, of a considerable extent, about 2,300 pages, are in the first tab, called Insecta. Numerous and accurate literature which is based has a very different origin and has been translated by myself. Complete work is available on this website, but separated by chapters, as you can see in the overall index. The idea is that the reader could easily find the specific subject he is looking for.
You will find a second tab, entitled Biographica. Here are included short biographies of several naturalists, scientists, geographers, historians or travelers who appear in my work, and for which I have great admiration; without their contribution I would not have written anything.
In third tab, called Etiam perire Ruinae, which mean "till ruins have disappeared" (Lucan. Farsalia, IX, 969), you will find maps of the ancient world. This is an ambitious work that I started on 2015. And maybe I never will finish it, its size is really considerable. The intention is to make a sort of tourist guide in the known world at the second century after Christ; what a traveller would find then: seas, rivers, mountain ranges, ethnicities, towns, cities or regions, all in its Latinized name.
The bibliography is based on the writings of ancient historians and geographers like Ptolemy, Pliny, Strabo, and many others who made minor contributions. Once drawn, I will upload the maps to the web, along with database "access" that supports them: there you will find all the information gathered and will facilitate you the location you are searching.
I have create that website to offer freely to you several contents of everything that I found interesting and I have learnt and wrote. It does not seem fair to me that jobs remain invisible in a drawer, and I think it’s not enough they remain limited to the published work. I want that my effort around many years collecting and processing much information could serve to anyone who feels interested in these matters than I have been really passionate.
Finally, you will find another tab, entitled Miscellanea ab absurdo: here are included phrases, ideas, short stories and thoughts that spin through my mind, often surrealist. I also need to open my head about "minor" questions, trivial if you prefer, but that produce to me comfort and pleasure. Here is shown another work of mine, nothing to do with the above, just a comedy that I wrote to laugh. I laughed a lot: Seven crimes per copulation (Plataforma, 2015), wrote by Margarito Micifú, a pseudonymous author… I had no courage to put my real name. I recommend you to see the book launch in the bookstore Abacus, it was really funny.
Links about articles and interviews
TV
Televisió Sant Cugat (desembre 2014. minuts 12:03)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykVxyL8yzrI
Barcelonautes (juliol 2018. minuts 15:13)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajm7rmtJdAI
TV3. Tot es mou (juliol 2018. minuts 13:42)
http://www.ccma.cat/tv3/alacarta/tot-es-mou/mosques-i-mosquits-que-fan-historia/video/5775270/
El 9 TV de Vic (abril 2019. minuts 16:40)
https://el9nou.cat/video/diana-riba-xavier-sistach-i-xavier-camprubi/
Conferència al Fòrum de Debats de Vic. Insectes transmissors de malalties (5 d'abril de 2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1eMTMnY0ek
Broadcasting
Onda Vasca (octubre 2012. minutos 0:00-12:01)
Radio Euskadi. La Casa de la palabra (noviembre 2012. minutos 6:05-20:00)
Catalunya Ràdio. Ràdio Gent de Cultura (2013)
Cadena Ser. Hoy por hoy (setiembre 2013. minutos 0:00-21:50)
http://cadenaser.com/programa/2013/09/20/hoy_por_hoy/1379628003_850215.html
Catalunya Ràdio. El Suplement, La Marató (desembre 2017. minuts 47:30-59:55)
Radio Extremadura. El sol sale por el oeste (Junio 2018. minutos 31:35-41:50)
Radio M21. Einstein en Malasaña (junio 2018. minutos 55:16-58:00)
https://www.m21radio.es/podcast/einstein-en-malasana/einstein-en-malasana-20062018
RNE-Radio3. Efecto Doppler (junio 2018. minutos 32:25-41:45)
http://mvod.lvlt.rtve.es/resources/TE_SDOPPLE/mp3/2/1/1529957416512.mp3
Catalunya Ràdio. La nit dels ignorants (juliol 2018. minuts 49:00-58:55)
RAC1. Hawai 19.05 (agost 2018. minuts 9:35-26:50)
Radio Nacional. Solamente una vez (noviembre 2019. minutos 18:05-30:17)
Cope. Mediodía COPE Más con Ana Pastor (21.XI.2019. Minutos 20:25-30:52)
https://cope-cdnmed.agilecontent.com/resources/mp3/2/5/1574410741952.mp3?download
Radio 3. Hoy empieza todo (3.XII.2019. Minutos 1:35-2:24 / 1:10-1:31)
https://mediavod-lvlt.rtve.es/resources/TE_SHETMEC/mp3/1/8/1575369805781.mp3
Radio exterior de España. La vida en verde (21.XII.2019. Minutos 21:50-34:15) https://mediavod-lvlt.rtve.es/resources/TE_SVIDAVE/mp3/6/2/1576566031326.mp3
Elisa McCausland. Insectos (Maria Sibylla Merian). Efecto Doppler en Radio 3 (13/02/2020) (minutos 28:02-39:45)
https://mediavod-lvlt.rtve.es/resources/TE_SDOPPLE/mp3/2/4/1581456041542.mp3
Mabel Kremer. La historia de las moscas y los mosquitos. Hoy por hoy. Radio Caracol Colombia (11/02/2020) https://caracol.com.co/programa/2020/02/11/hoy_por_hoy/1581420117_577717.html
Hala bedi.Kasa Katxan. Pasión por los insectos (5.15 - marzo 2020) (minutos 4:20-41:10)
https://halabedi.eus/es/author/kasakatxan/
Javier del Pino y Juan José Millás. Las especies del diablo. Las edades de Millás. A vivir. Cadena Ser (14/06/2020) (minutos 24:30 a final)
https://cadenaser.com/programa/2020/06/14/a_vivir_que_son_dos_dias/1592129291_870393.html
Papers
Diario Página12. Suplemento (marzo 2008)
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/espectaculos/2-9516-2008-03-16.html
El Mundo. Los bichos que casi exterminan la humanidad (noviembre 2012)
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/11/16/ciencia/1353062402.html
El blog de José Ramón Alonso: Reseña Insectos y hecatombes (enero 2013)
https://jralonso.es/2013/01/26/resena-insectos-y-hecatombes/
Bolguejat. Salvador Macip. Ressenya Insectos y hecatombes (febrer 2013)
http://bloguejat.blogspot.com/2013/02/ressenya-insectos-y-hecatombes.html
La opinión de Murcia. Juan José Millás. Zoologías misteriosas (julio 2013)
https://www.laopiniondemurcia.es/opinion/2013/07/24/zoologias-misteriosas/485966.html
Diri de Girona. Juan José Millàs. Zoologies misterioses (juliol 2013)
https://www.diaridegirona.cat/opinio/2013/07/25/zoologies-misterioses/627763.html
Plagastop. Pulgas y piojos cambiaron el rumbo de la historia (2014)
http://www.plagastop.com/pulgas-y-piojos-cambiaron-el-rumbo-de-la-historia/
Medicina Asesina. Naomí Baumslag (febrero 2014). Prefacio (pág. 9-18)
Las Provincias. Una mosca típica puede transmitir más de cien enfermedades (noviembre 2014)
https://www.lasprovincias.es/sociedad/salud/201411/18/xavier-sistach-especialista-historia-20141118000405-v.html
National Geographic. Historia. La malaria ha matado más que la peste y el tifus juntos (marzo 2015)
Ara.cat. Francesc Orteu. Criatures (novembre 2015)
https://criatures.ara.cat/fill-et-marca-necessita-limits_0_1467453241.html
La Nueva Ilustración Evolucionista. Germánico. Entrevista (mayo 2017)
http://ilevolucionista.blogspot.com/2017/05/insectos-y-hecatombes-entrevista-xavier.html
El Periódico. Avances de ciencia. Los insectos en el origen del paludismo (junio 2018)
La Vanguardia. Opinión. Màrius Serra. Los mosquitos me ‘mosquitean’ (julio 2018)
https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20180703/45586289864/los-mosquitos-me-mosquitean.html
Libreria La Central. El Blog. Nacho Borraz. Reseña Historia de las moscas y de los mosquitos (julio 2018)
https://www.lacentral.com/blog/xavier-sistach-152138
El Mundo. Personajes únicos. Paula Clemente. Mosquitos como armas (ya inútiles) de guerra (julio 2018)
http://www.elmundo.es/economia/innovadores/2018/07/25/5b55faa4468aeb5a2c8b4584.html
MosqitoAlert. Marina Torres. Entrevista. “Hay que explicar la historia y la ciencia con emoción y anécdotas cautivadoras” (julio 2018)
http://www.mosquitoalert.com/hay-que-explicar-la-historia-y-la-ciencia-con-emocion-y-anecdotas-cautivadoras/
Zenda. Yolanda Guerrero. No hay enemigo pequeño (agosto 2018)
https://www.zendalibros.com/no-enemigo-pequeno/
Diario de Pontevedra. Moscas y mosquitos son los insectos más nocivos para el ser humano (agosto 2018)
Agencia EFE. Moscas y mosquitos, una larga historia (agosto 2018)
https://www.efe.com/efe/andalucia/sociedad/moscas-y-mosquitos-una-larga-historia/50001109-3723159#
Ara Estiu. El mosquito no és el nostre únic enemic (agost 2018)
https://www.ara.cat/estiu/mosquit-no-nostre-unic-enemic_0_1849015097.html
El Correo de Zamora. Juan José Millás. Buen día. El feliz momento de abrir el libro "Historia de las moscas y los mosquitos" (agosto 2018)
https://www.laopiniondezamora.es/sociedad/2018/08/22/buen-dia/1105098.html
Gustavo Colorado Grisales. Cuídate de la ira de Dios... Y de las pulgas (octubre 2018)
http://miblog-acido.blogspot.com/2018/10/cuidate-de-la-ira-de-diosy-de-las-pulgas.html
El Mundo. Mar de Miguel. Moscas y mosquitos: asesinos de masas. (agosto 2019)
https://www.elmundo.es/papel/historias/2019/08/31/5d68fd52fc6c83ed368b4599.html
El País. Agathe Cortes. Las mujeres que cazaron mariposas con un revólver y una navaja bajo la falda (octubre 2019)
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/10/04/ciencia/1570196090_702158.html
La Vanguardia. Domingo Marchena. La triste historia de la amante de las libélulas (noviembre 2019)
Victor Amela. La Contra de La Vanguardia (31/12/2019).