This article aims to highlight the importance of the link between Bologna and Barcelona, consisting of an epistemic and methodological convergence in the approach to the criminal question and, in particular, to the problem of penal selectivity.  If on the one hand this link cannot be eliminated, on the other it is exposed to a series of attempts at obfuscation by the dominant legal and criminological ideology, which is even reflected in autobiographical contingencies that add an anecdotal dimension to the discussion. At the same time, the recovery of this link imposes a reflection on the contemporary criminological debate, since the distinctive features of Italian-Iberophone critical criminology clash with some premises of the most recent and advanced trends in terms of critical potential, in particular the zemiological approach. One example is the role that criminal dogmatics plays within the sociological analysis of the penal system following Franco Bricola’s lesson, and the meaning of this methodological choice in terms of transdisciplinarity and political radicalism.  Our conclusion is that a better coordination between critical traditions is needed: one that aims at overcoming linguistic barriers and starts with a systematic review of the existing critical arsenal before any headlong rush.