Pilar González, retired official, the indignation does not fit in the body, which does not appear the 90 years. He is visiting 80 worlds in Alicante, to which he has been “for many years.” “In my house and in my brothers there are no walls, but books,” he says. And while looking sideways at a copy of VioletIsabel Allende’s novel that will end up buying, laments with rage that the establishment has to change location. “So, without more?” He says, “it’s a shame.” The new owners of the building in which the bookstore is located, one of the city’s cultural referents, have warned their owners that they intend to convert the place into tourist use apartments. And that they have to evict him as soon as possible. “I will do what is needed to try to avoid it,” says González, “everything is a matter of money and principles.”
Marina Vicente is one of the owners of 80 worlds, along with Sara Trigueros, Carmen Juan and Ralph del Valle. They took the reins of the store in 2018, when the previous owner and founder retired, Fernando Linde. Since then, they have insufflated new life to the establishment, which took its name from a book by Julio Cortázar and opened its doors in one of the main arteries of the urban center in 1984, which makes it the oldest bookstore in the city. The second, if you take into account roots, which is from Lance and next year will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. “On June 21,” Vicente recalls, “the owners of the building told us that they had sold it whole and that they believed that the new owners were not going to keep the premises open” that they give to the street. Last Tuesday, the buyers, the Madrid company Lupiale, SL, confirmed that they will allocate the property to tourist apartments. “And that they were going to reform the premises to build a central courtyard surrounded by floors, to give them the numbers,” so they would terminate the rental contract, with a year still in force. “They asked us to be as soon as possible,” says Vicente.
The blow was hard. First, because the bookstore has always been in the same place and “appears even in the tourist guides” of Alicante. Second, because the announcement, which still does not have an official statement, reaches “two months after the textbook campaign”, fundamental to square the annual accounts. And third, “because in the two months that give us the deadline to move, with August, it is almost impossible to find a new place, reform it urgently and transfer all the material.” “We have put the case in the hands of lawyers,” even the customers of the legal sector have offered themselves to help them, “and we have asked the new owners who, at least, give us the entire year left of the contract to change the location,” says Vicente.
The involuntary move jumped to the headlines of the local newspaper Informationwhich advanced the news. And, since then, “by email, by social networks, by phone and even in person”, customers show their anger “and ask what they can do to save the bookstore.” “They are taking something away from them, they believe that the culture of the entire city is in danger and reject the excess tourist,” The data handled by the Ministry of Tourism of the Valencian Community indicate that since 2023 53 blocks of tourist floors in the city have been registered, 16 in 2023, 25 in 2024 and 12 more in the first six months of this year, despite the fact that the City Council has just announced that it increases the period of suspension of new licenses. In addition, Alicante is one of the ten Spanish cities with more places in housing for tourist use (VUT) than in hotels. And the province, the one that most floors for tourist accommodation, has the entire national territory, with 41,179 units and 214,284 places, according to INE data to November 2024.
The reaction of citizenship has been overwhelming. For this Saturday, a citizen concentration has almost improvised for the defense and protection of the city’s cultural assets, which will take place at 19 hours at the door of 80 worlds. Even the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, has shown his support through his account in the social network Blue Sky: “They throw 80 worlds, the most emblematic bookstore of Alicante, to make tourist apartments.” “We cannot allow ourselves to lose space to a model that expels those who give soul to cities. All my support for their books. Alicante cannot afford to lose 80 worlds,” he concludes. The library won received the 2019 Cultural Library Award, awarded by the Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Libraries Associations (CEGAL).
But the main support comes from the clientele. “For a lot of pressure and uncertainty that has been generated, the constant help of customers has not allowed us to stop thinking well what is happening,” thanks Adrián Fauro, an employee of the establishment. “We have been offered lawyers, real estate agents who offer to let us know if they see a place” that blocks them, “there are people who lend us their storage rooms in case we need to store the books and there are clients who are spending much more money than they usually” to show their adhesion. This is the case of José Antonio Tenza, a doctor who is the same age as the bookstore, 41 years. “It is an icon of the city,” he says, “I remember coming with my parents as a child to buy textbooks.” Now he has returned after reading what is happening, in search of his favorite books, “Science fiction and terror”, a section of which he takes two copies. Mass tourism “is breaking the heart of the Alicante,” in his opinion, “destroys local commerce” that configures “the idiosyncrasy of the city.” “If you lose what the Alicante have built,” says Marina Vicente, “What do tourists visit, in reality, a point on the map in which there is sun and beach?”