The Rafael Alberti bookstore, located on Tudor Street in Madrid, in the heart of the Argüelles neighborhood, about 600 meters from the PSOE headquarters on Ferraz Street, was vandalized this Thursday with swastikas painted on its façade.
This bookstore opened its doors in November 1975, during the Spanish Transition and, in its half century of life, it has become one of the reference places on the Madrid cultural itinerary and a very loved and frequented place in the Moncloa district. .
This Thursday, after last night’s protests on Ferraz Street, it woke up with several swastikas painted on its shop window. In statements to Europa Press, its owner, Lola Larumbe, explained that they prefer to “not give a damn” to this type of incident, which she has framed in the general situation that the neighborhood is experiencing.
He thus referred to the protests that have taken place every night for several weeks in front of the PSOE headquarters to denounce the investiture pacts of Pedro Sánchez with the nationalist and independence parties, including the amnesty law on the incidents of 1 October in Catalonia.
“We prefer that the focus be on the literary activity of the bookstore, which is preparing to celebrate its 50 years of life,” explained the owner of the bookstore since November 1979.
Along these lines, he recalled that this place was already the object of attacks during the Transition by the extreme right, since in its beginnings, mainly the years 1976 to 1978, it suffered several fascist attacks, and he has framed the graffiti to the situation. that is generally experienced in the neighborhood by the “ultra groups” that have taken to the streets in these protests.
A vandalization that has also been denounced from the world of culture. “They will not get us to take even a step back,” defended the writer and journalist Inés Martín Rodrigo, 2022 Nadal Prize winner for ‘The Forms of Wanting’, in a message published on social networks in which she expressed her solidarity with the owner of the establishment. And numerous citizens have given their support to the bookstore on social networks.
This place was founded by Enrique Lagunero and his brother Teodulfo, friends of the poet Rafael Alberti, and has been a witness and protagonist of the great events of the recent history of Spain until it became a meeting point, physical and virtual, of a large community. of readers that transcends the limits of the neighborhood and the city.
It has a diverse selection of editorial collections with more than 20,000 references of humanities and literature books, as well as a section specialized in children’s and youth literature that has its own activity.
In 2004 she was awarded by the Ministry of Culture and CEGAL with the V Cultural Bookseller Award for her project “Encuentros en Alberti” and that same year the independent publishers of Madrid awarded her the Bibliodiversidad Award. Additionally, in 2019 she was awarded the Liber-Boixareu Best Bookstore Award.
