MEXICO CITY (Process).- The oldest organized booksellers in Mexico open this Monday the 22nd, within the framework of World Book Day and Copyright Day (Tuesday the 23rd), their rehabilitated Balderas Cultural Corridor, with the hope of a future declaration of Heritage of the CDMX.
After four decades of living on an itinerant basis on one side of the Ciudadela Park – next to the México Library, in the Balderas Metro -, 38 booksellers (popularly called “old booksellers”) received their new permanent premises.
The space was formed in this new stage after an inauguration by the capital authorities on April 6. However, from Monday the 22nd they will open as a collective, and therefore they will offer discounts throughout this week from 10 to 50%.
The government of Mexico City reported that the corridor is part of the “comprehensive revitalization of the Historic Center,” in order to preserve the bookseller’s trade and consolidate the cultural vocation of the area. The new covered modules have shelves with capacity for about 2,000 books (old and/or collectible copies) that open and close for protection.
The Undersecretary of Mayoral Programs and Reorganization of Public Roads of the Secretariat of Government (Segob), Urban Development and Housing (Seduvi), as well as the Historic Center Authority (ACH) participate in the cultural corridor.
The program is the result of four years of work between the authorities of these agencies and the Self-Managed Association of Booksellers “Corredor Cultural Balderas, AC”, made up of the 38 booksellers.
It was the Councilor of that association, César Sánchez Obregón, 67 years old, who shared in an interview with Process the history of the place, which can be traced through four stages:
The first corresponds to its birth around 1984, when five traveling booksellers settled in the area, among them Sánchez Obregón, a moment about which he remembers that in that first stage there was still the military barracks and the re-sealing of booklets on the side of Balderas, as well as the National School of Crafts.
Around 1989, a traveling caravan was added that remained there for nine years, whose manager was paid as part of an agreement, and where the use of the bookseller was distorted, since there was general traveling trade and piracy.
The third moment was in 1998, when the authorities intervened with the idea of eliminating the corridor and street vendors, and there the Self-Managed Association of Booksellers “Corredor Cultural Balderas” was formed, which in its defense responded with a speech about the importance of the book in the history of Mexico City. There emerged Sánchez Obregón, who says:
“They wanted to remove us because they wanted to visually clean the Citadel, we recognized that the authority had to take care of the streets, but we made a speech so that they would also recognize that the bookseller had always been in the history of Mexico City, and that the Markets Law dictates that around a market there can only be newspaper and book stalls. We asked that we be treated as they were given to ticket holders, boleros and newspaper sellers, we added the Printing Law, the culture project, and they understood that we had to reach an agreement.
“There was even a first stand model suggested by journalist Humberto Mussachio, who asked me to visit the Pachuca Photo Library, specifically the Seminario Cupboards, and that first stand was inspired by that. “It was a triumph.”
Reader of B. Traven, Carlos Marx, Rubem Fonseca, Miguel León Portilla, and the journalistic works of Julio Scherer and Miguel Granados Chapa, in 2020, the reorganization of the corridor is defined as part of the Revitalization of the Historic Center and specifically the rescue of Santa María la Redonda. Report:
“The agreement we reached is that the booksellers who were there had to be like that, 100% booksellers and not merchants of other items.”
And he states:
Aquino, at his location in Medellín 337. Photo: Courtesy Enrique Aquino.
“Now we have a good relationship with Mariano Leyva, director of the Mexico Library, who has even suggested that we carry out cultural activities, conferences, dialogues, and we have thought about giving a prize by the booksellers to the best-selling author, which is something that booksellers provide in Spain, France, Italy, and it is very prestigious. What happens is that we have little union life, we need unity, and have greater projection, and that is exactly what we are working on.
“And perhaps, later, seek a declaration as Heritage of Mexico City.”
–Why a declaration, what elements do you think they have?
–Well, this, as we talked about, goes back forty years, and a continuous story. We are not a new corridor, we are entering a new stage that we hope will be the most productive. I think the authorities are also seeing it that way.
“We are already on social networks, we are starting to move to make sense of April 23, hence the discounts we will have. We are a guild of booksellers that has appropriated the history of the book, we are forming a direction, a meaning.”
–What differentiates you from other book corridors in Mexico City?
–We are actually the only corridor where the authority has been involved with good intentions, respecting, and even by extension it is a long corridor-bookstore, due to seniority and number of participants as well, it is unique in America, and you can search for that and review.
He reports that there are other concentrations of booksellers in the city, such as the one in Callejón Condesa – between the Minería Palace and the Post Office, also in the Historic Center – “but it has taken a different direction”, since the furniture was changed.” , although “piracy is still being dealt with.”
He also remembers that a little before the pandemic, in the San Fernando Park (by Alameda), a movement of chatter was created that started from a corridor located between the Franz Meyer and De la Estampa museums: “That is a curious project that already “It has activity related to popular collecting.”
But returning to the original question, this corridor – he concludes – is unique.”
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One of the owners of the corridor, Enrique Aquino Blanco, 68 years old, originally from Córdoba, Veracruz, owner of the Arte y cultura bookstore (located at Medellín 337, Roma Sur neighborhood), tells Process who arrived in Mexico City at the age of 18. After various jobs, he began selling encyclopedias from house to house and became involved in the publishing industry, until he became a manager at Grupo Editorial Planeta, then in Santillana, and had his own distributor, Diversión Editorial.
“My bookstore is second-hand, it has everything, and I started it after a long journey years ago, when I started flirting with second-hand books. I took out my personal library of about 2,500 books and that’s how it all started; “We survived the pandemic and we are still here.”
He narrates that although he started reading “as an adult,” at 29-30 years old, “I started with history, because when you open the bookstore you have to know everything, because people test you; It is a beautiful job. The story really helped me stay on track, especially when I was asked questions. I don’t see this as a job, I enjoy it and I love books.”
The official inauguration. Sánchez and Batres, in the center. Courtesy CDMX Government.
He also cites Miguel León-Portilla among his favorite authors.
–And how do you get to the Balderas Cultural Corridor?
–It was more by invitation, César Obregón took me, who knows my bookstore, my work, and is a friend whom I met through books.
“My project is to have three branches of “Art and Culture”, I think of the one in Balderas as the second bookstore, and for the moment it is a great new stage for all the booksellers there. If you go to visit us, you will not leave empty-handed, the books call us and invite us to always read.”
He explains that in Balderas, due to the issue of space (between 1,500 and 2,000 books can fit in each location), he seeks to specialize in volumes associated with philosophy, history and religion, and mentions that the oldest Bible he has sold was one from 1730. .
The 38 mini-bookstores are open from Monday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and their activities with projection on Facebook are located as “Balderas Cultural Corridor Self-Management Association.”
