While the photographer, good old jordi otixthe type is played from the road to portray them next to their business, the stream of neighbors who stop for a moment to chat, give them a hug, kisses, encouragement, offer your help. Total, that the photo, which had to be the one of the sisters Rosa and Maria Bassedas in front of his Sarrià square bookstoreThat fire on January 30, it ends up being that of the clients tucking them in and encouraging their soon return. because in the city of commercial gentrificationin the city each time within the reach of fewer pockets, that a store of so much proximity is a bite in the social stability. And there they are, soft as custard, taking it from time to time, more bad than good, waiting for the insurance companies to finish the puzzle of the agreement that should decide their future. This is one neighborhood storybut it says a lot about the Barcelona of 2023.
Let’s start with the facts. On January 30, around four in the afternoon, Maria was alone in the store. She went up to the attic to look for refills of paper and heard a dry burst. Half an hour later, the place was engulfed in flames. Neither his fire extinguisher nor the one from a neighboring store could with the fire. According to the firefighters, an electrical fault. The next day he came proficient, and for 10 days they have been reducing ashes and debris. “Now it’s a black and empty box“Rose defines.
They will have to wait for the companies to agree. From this will come a figure that should suffice for the reconstructionbut his first estimates are not optimistic: it will be more expensive. Now they combine mourning with doubts, not knowing if that margin between what they will be offered and what rebirth will really cost it’s worth it. Reviewing how they have gotten here may throw some clue about their future.
Agenda and invoice
Rose worked for three decades at the Liceu. She began as a management secretary and left shortly after turning 50 as head of institutional relations. He entered a year and a half before the theater burned down, on January 31, 1994. It was a grim coincidence that the bookstore burned down on January 30, almost 29 years later. I had no plan B, but she was convinced that it would not be difficult for her to find a job. Mistake… It wasn’t easy, so became autonomous and began to sting here and there doing tasks of Cultural Management.
At the end of 2017 he went to the Hernandez bookstore from Plaça de Sarrià, the neighborhood where they have lived intermittently for many years. He bought an agenda for the following year and asked the clerk to make him an invoice. “you are autonomous? This business is transferred… “, she told her. She had never considered being an entrepreneur, but she went home with the first date nerve.
He broke the tie when he called his sister, colder, more rational, less passionate, the one who keeps her feet on the ground while she floats in illusions. She proposed that they embark on this adventure together and Maria, a lifetime as a management secretary in a couple of offices, He leaved carry. “Neither of us had a clue what we were getting into,” she recalls.
counterweights
They opened on February 1, 2018 after a month of transfer in which former owners, behind the counter since 1963, behaved wonderfully and taught them all the secrets of the profession. They kept Ricard as an employee in the mornings, the boy who sold the diary to Rosa. They were around 50 years old, but that start over it returned to them the healthy insecurity of the beginnings. Not knowing, being convinced that you will be wrong, discover something new every day, the doubt of whether others will like you. But above all, feeling in charge of her own destiny and having one of the most important people in her life by her side. A sister, but also a counterweight, because oh my god how different these two ladies are.
In July 2019 they changed the name and put it Plaça bookstore. Nothing against Mr. Hernández who in the 60s raised the blind every morning, but it was time to put his stamp. They considered putting his last name, Bassedas, but they opted, because after all this is still a town on the plain of Barcelonain giving him a traditional touch. Things were going well, with newspapers, magazines, books, stickers of the kidstationery items.
round trip relationship
And the pandemic arrived that cloistered all of us except a few. Thanks to the sale of press they were able to open every day. In the afternoons, when they closed, delivered newspapers to regular customers. And these are the details that explain the hugs and expressions of affection received since the fire stopped their vital lines. A reaction that, they admit, has surprised them and that they explain by their way of being and attending. “We know how to listen to peopleIt doesn’t cost anything, we’re not in a hurry, we don’t criticize anyone. There are many people who are alone and who like to tell you things. I think they notice that our relationship with them is not fake, and that the love is mutual.”
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They express it in a very uneven way, but it shows, and it would be missing more, that they are afraid. Or respect for what is to come. Because they already made the big investment five years ago with the transfer and they don’t see each other, at 58 (Rosa) and 54 (Maria) embarked again with credits that they don’t know if they will be able to assume. But they don’t want alms either. They don’t know how, but once they have the figures on the table, they will try to find a way to get ahead. By Sant JordiFor example, they will set up a stop in the square like every year. It is likely that then they still have not recovered the business, but April 23 is their day and there is no fire that is going to take it away. Those who want to lend a hand, from the outset, you can follow them on instagram.
This is the story of a neighborhood business in low hours that sooner rather than later will need the neighbors to embrace action. But it is also the chronicle of two sisters so antagonistic that they meet at all the limits of their differences. They have something in common: they love being booksellers.