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May of any year without Covid-19 . José Alfredo, a fan of mexican you don’t miss a show, lands in Madrid as each San Isidro. Does not pass nor by the hotel to leave the luggage. Their first destination: Marqués de Zafra, 31. There stands the temple of literature, taurine, the library Rodriguez , an example of which bullfighting is a culture. “Many foreign customers, Mexico, France, or Peru, coming directly from the plane, eager to buy our works. Some arrive with empty suitcases and fill it with books, although that doesn’t happen this season,” says Carlos Ballesteros Rodriguez , the fourth generation of this family of booksellers. There are No buyers today.

In fact, on the first day of the phase Zero Point Five, “without prior appointment”, only one is interested in “The last 24 hours of Joselito el Gallo” . It is his centenary, and the majority of orders for the confinement have been well-versed on Cock: “Marked the summit of bullfighting and his books have been the most claimed on our website ; they have also sold novels not bullfighting, but not to the level expected by both fear and uncertainty of the pandemic, and the crisis; the people think when it comes time to spend the money. The reality is that it has been sold very little.”

Madrid has been left without a bull. is cows no longer enviudan at five in the afternoon, as evoked by Joaquin Vidal in a chronic. Are the books the dressed in mourning, without the hands that petted their crooked lines, without eyes to read the crush of the syllables and without that smell of bitter almonds of the love affair of García Márquez, the Nobel passionate about the Party. In the neighborhood Sales, the hem of the shelves is full, but the lines of the reading public are an entirely desert in these weeks of sun and flies. “You notice a lot: the bars and shops of the area live a large part of the year of what is billed in San Isidro. My business is very seasonal, that I get in may I served to keep me until October. This year will be rundown “, regrets Ballesteros Rodríguez, in charge “of the inventory, cleaning, packages, of sort… I’m alone and it’s crazy to keep everything”.

“Annals of Bullfighting”, by Velázquez and Sánchez, a work of a collector with a price of 1.350 euros, the most expensive of your funds bullfighting

The eternity fits between the spring of “No tickets”, 2019, and this books ‘ authors who write, but not just anyone to buy, with the business layer-fall “. To stir the silence in the cathedral of the wise men of the bullfighting scene of lit get-togethers any other month of may. Are close to the two and the bookstore Rodriguez, “the only one in the world specialized in the bulls”, it is appointment only with loneliness. Gone are those noons isidriles in which the shelves of this venteña street is filled of hands that looked through pages sepia with the family tree of the farms to the output of the draw and were looking for the last treasures. Linings, a reflection of the situation in Spain, are still empty. Already Ortega y Gasset warned…

the books of The philosopher are also on the shelves this bookcase is 41 years placed, from a steep staircase. “Here is a lot of sport,” he says. Is the fourth link of a series headed by two Stanislaus , which, as its name, gave glory to the literature of the art of Cúchares. The dynasty continued with María-Victoria , and with his son, Carlos. “Started before age twenty in calle Abada, in 1935, was established in San Bernardo and in 1998 became a Marques Zafra “, explains the next to the last romantic of the collection. “Despite the difficulties, I love this job and I would like my daughters to keep him,” she confesses.

Sign in natural silk of the Running of the Charity, 1900, at a price of 650 euros

More than three thousand titles give voice to centuries of memory taurine , which are also the history of Spain. A cultural treasure created on a circle: “sometimes the same family, we purchase books to build their library, we sell it at the death of the owner, and, for example, a grandchild, the returns to acquiring to retain the jewels of their ancestors”. From France came the most precious, “Annals of Bullfighting” , by José Velázquez y Sánchez, “a work that sold us a lord of Paris next to all of their funds”. Carlos picked up a van and undertook, next to his then-girlfriend, heading to Versailles: “it Took me over ten hours to charge the books, but it was worth it. And these “Annals” are a wonder, for a value of 1,350 euros. There are more expensive, such as “The Dorothy” , Imprenta Real, 1654. Costs 1,500 euros”. There are pieces of authentic luxury: “Banners of silk of the late NINETEENTH and early TWENTIETH centuries, which have served as wedding gifts, in addition to other paper of the time”. The diamonds of the crown: a poster of 1850, with the Chiclanero, and other Charities, with Machaquito and Anole , in a run of 1 June 1900 presided over by the King and the Queen. The time: at three o’clock.

“Lord Churches, let’s prohibitions. Totalitarian States start banning the bulls and end up banning bookstores bullfighting”

so far, this corner of the literary Madrid was open only in the mornings. In solitude, as it is written and as it reads, but with the hope that in this phase 1 return noise. At the bottom of those pages, silent in the shouting, the communication that both longs for this bookseller: “Echo is much less relationships with customers. For me, the reader, taurine is the best, big talker and the most respectful. Here come the scholars, bibliophiles, writers, old fans that are put to bullfighting, and many young people are attracted by bullfighting and have come out of the closet without fear of the insults of antitaurinos; also, some livestock, and very few bullfighters”. Is the x-ray of the reader that makes the paseíllo in the hem of the Rodriguez, where almost everything is absent: “the booksellers of Madrid has affected us powerfully the conviction not to move from phase; in addition, we need the tourism. Allowed us to open the doors to not receive the help for cessation of activity , but with the people involved in the house has been dilapidated. What is health if it can sustain the economy? In times of fear, uncertainty, and unemployment, to just sell books.”

Poster 1850 that it has been interested in the Regional Library of Madrid. Price: 1,200 euros

In the midst of the concern, shares her dream: “to Have a library Sales . If in the caves of Nerja, you can buy a manual of Geology, in a cultural epicenter as the plaza de toros there is that display and sell our culture, our literature, to publicize the Party beyond key chains and other souvenirs”.

“My dream is to have a bookstore in Sales. If in the caves of Nerja, you can buy a manual of Geology, in a cultural epicenter as the plaza de toros there is that display and sell our literature”

Under a painting of Morante , with the signing of Diego Ramos, the glitter of art: “Although although some members of the Government, the Party is culture”. And launched a petition: “ Leave us alone . We do not want aid, just allow us to take and enjoy the bulls without discriminatory rules and without that we criminalize”. Because without cumshots there is no paradise for writers or artists, “for the many families that live from the bullfighting”. Outraged with the attacks of Pablo Iglesias , invites you to visit this sacred temple of the most great authors of literature: “Lord Churches, let’s prohibitions. Totalitarian States start banning the bulls and end up banning the books in the bullfighting arena. Here we have books of antitaurinos as Eugenio Noel, , and fans can read with respect to their arguments, without humiliations or contempt. The culture of bullfighting also rises reflected in many of the books of the travelers of the NINETEENTH century, who admired our Party.” Can’t kill that which is eternal: “The literature taurine is an inexhaustible source of knowledge and openness of thought.” The free thinking that reflects the ink spilled on a syllabary of bravery.