* This article was published in the printed edition of Diario de Burgos on February 15.
Every morning he hangs out at the bookstore. At 80 years of age and permanently retired only 5 years ago, he sits for a while in a corner of the premises, reviews the press and spends some time reading, enjoying the creature that was his life for so many years and that he now runs. your son. Álvaro Manso Urbano has the satisfaction of having fulfilled his duty and thus transmits it under the shelves of the business that his father started, which he inherited and which he was later able to transmit to his descendants.
The main exponent of the second generation of the ‘Luz y Vida’ bookstore came to the world at number 51 on Calle San Juan 80 years ago. He was the eldest of six siblings of whom four now live, the son of a “very normal” family in postwar Burgos, difficult years of which he vaguely remembers rationing and his father “going to look for a loaf.”
His father was from Guernica. He was born in the Basque Country because his grandfather was a police officer stationed there, and that is why his uncles came from Bermeo or Lekeitio, but before the Civil War he was already assigned to Burgos and settled here with his wife Antonia, from Burgos. First he worked in a printing company in Huerto de Rey and later he went to the Polo Printing Office as an operator, until he decided to open his own store in July 1948. “Thanks to some savings from my aunt Aurora, who spent what she had betting on her nephew. She was a great woman in every way, because she could have played basketball, “he jokes, remembering her.
The precious name of ‘Luz y Vida’ gave clues about the main dedication in the beginning. “It was fundamentally a store of religious objects. As a child, more than looking at books, it sounds to me that there were pictures of saints, candles, nativity scenes, crucifixes. And rosaries, which in those years were sold like donuts.” It was an overwhelmingly Catholic Spain and a city famous for its density of priestly population, so it is not surprising that there was a strong market in that sector.
While his father started the business, he studied at the San Antonio school and later at the Liceo, but very soon, at 16 or 17 years old, he began to spend a lot of time in the store. “I did a little of everything, the economy was in a very low moment and it was necessary to lend a hand.”
Remember, for example, that the family business “suffered from Mayor Díaz Reig, who did a great job for the city but we had to build the large collector in Laín Calvo and La Paloma. It was an impressive thing, a huge hole they had to do, and for us it was devastating because everything was up and you had to walk on planks “. Then, as now, the works have always been the enemy of the small businesses directly affected.
He completed a 24-month military service in Burgos, as he volunteered to avoid having to go to the Ifni War, which at that time faced Spain with Morocco. Assigned to Health, he also did administrative work at the Military Hospital and solved the military with just a few guards and the afternoons off.
After a few years of learning, at the beginning of the 60s came the generational change. The son took the reins of the father and began to turn the library towards a general theme, although maintaining the religious part “because we felt proud to be a benchmark in these issues,” he explains.
Although the publishing world was very different then from the current one, “it was difficult to deal with them because they did not recognize us, at first they did not know who we were and they did not trust you when, for example, to advance payments. I believe that now everything is going faster and before the pace was calmer, but also more difficult. “
In the midst of the dictatorship, the censors not only took care of the press but were also concerned about the intellectual movement that could get out of the pot around books. “From time to time they would come to pick up a book, but before they arrived we had already put it away. I remember they were in a narrow corridor that we called ‘Hell’ and there we had the most complicated books. All the bookstores kept some because we always kept one. there were customers interested in them. “
Meanwhile, ‘Luz y Vida’ was expanded with a second store across the street, always on Laín Calvo street. It was opened by his father, but later it was run by his brothers Rafael and Javier. “That store was more specialized in art, there were paintings and also a computer and nature theme.” Now that space is closed and ‘Luz y Vida’ remains on the sidewalk of the peers, in a premises renovated in 2013 a few meters from its original location.
Your recommendations. We said that Álvaro Manso has never lost his taste for reading, and in fact continues to speak passionately about books. “Above all I read novels and essays. Now I am finishing one that I have loved, Infinity in a reed, a declaration of love for books that is truly wonderful.” He also cites Leonardo Padura, Luis Landero, the historical novel in the style of Yo, Julia. And he stresses that there are “readings for all audiences and each one has its moment and its clientele.”
In the eternal debate about whether the number one in sales is of lower or worse quality, it falls in the middle. “It is true that sometimes they do not meet expectations, but there are also great bestsellers that are very good and have nothing to envy others.”
It also points to that curious phenomenon by which some authors spend several decades ignored and suddenly resuscitate for the general public, sheltered by editorials that promote them or the fashions in which criticism influences so much. He welcomes, for example, the rediscovery of Stefan Zweig, “whom for a few years everyone forgot, perhaps for political reasons, although luckily he has been rescued by ‘Cliff’ and has works as wonderful as his biographies, Stellar Moments of Humanity or 24 hours in the life of a woman “. And he also mentions Chaves Nogales, “because if a book faithfully and freely collects what many of us think the Civil War was, it is Blood and Fire.”
Is it possible as a reader to digest the enormous volume that is published? Of course not. There are not enough lives to read it all. “Perhaps too much is being edited, beyond our possibilities, as they say. I think the figures are around 80,000 titles every year in Spain, including reissues as well, and the problem is that when they edit so much the runs they make are very small. There are books that run out and then no one can find them, “he says.
For a few years, and especially in the last five years when he ended his partial retirement, Álvaro Jr. has been in charge of the business. “At the beginning of taking over, I admit that I was a little picky, but I don’t get involved anymore. I know my son works a lot and takes it well,” he proudly expresses.
A friend from a very young age of the photographer Federico Vélez, since the two families had their businesses opposite each other, he says he still has “a lot of trouble.” They go out for wines together, from time to time the families stay and he keeps a funny memory of a year when they came out disguised as carnivals: “Fede was going to be the Cid and I was the Roman emperor.”
Now his free time is spent walking around the city. He no longer goes to the movies like when he was young “and we even got into those double sessions.” And to continue cultivating one of his hobbies, he is enrolled in Art History at the Popular University for Education and Culture (Unipec), already in the last year of studies.
In addition, every morning she accompanies her youngest grandchildren (ages 4 and 6, because she also has others older than 16 and 20) to school. “They are at a great age and they have some points that you die of laughter with them, these days for example they tell you things about carnival. And it is a good way to start the day with energy.”
As if that were not enough with these daily obligations, he is also a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the VIII Centennial of the Cathedral Foundation. This gives continuity to a task that he developed for many years in the Chamber of Commerce, of which he began to be a part in 1998, both in the Executive Committee and in the Plenary and chairing the Culture Commission.
Exhibitions in Silos. From that time it keeps a special memory around the cycle of exhibitions that were located in the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos. The ‘Silensis’ cycle managed to bring together 24 artists in 25 exhibitions held between 2000 and 2008, and such sought-after and recognized names as Antoni Tàpies, Joan Miró, Miquel Barceló, Juan Navarro Baldeweg and Eduardo Chillida passed through there. “It was a very interesting time of which I am very proud that it was possible thanks to the collaboration of many people, from the Ministry of Culture to the Junta de Castilla y León through the president of the Chamber, Antonio Méndez Pozo or the then abbot, Dom Clemente Serna “.
Álvaro Manso is a member of a generation that worked too hard, and he acknowledges it. “It’s funny when now I listen to debates on the radio, that I consume more than TV, talking about reducing the working day. I would put 12 hours a day in the store, from morning to night, but all the freelancers of the time were the same My son’s generation is different, although he also spends many hours. ” That slavery of work has prevented, for example, from knowing more of the world. “Not having traveled more is a small blur that I have. Because it is true that it costs me a lot to leave the house, but also a lot to enter,” he says.
Has your business changed a lot in the last few decades? “I believe that now there is a stronger competition, before it was all more familiar,” he responds. “The city was smaller, we were a small group of bookstores and the daily operation was different. Today everything is put into computers, before we had to memorize and store everything in our heads. I think that thanks to that I have a good memory “, he presumes.
Speaking of computers, Manso does not want to hear about Amazon’s competition: “I prefer not to understand that world, because I revolt.” Of course, despite all the changes, he is convinced that the paper book has a long way to go: “They said that the electronic book was going to sweep away and it has not. It has its audience, but many readers prefer to continue reading in a paper support “.
In his opinion, the contemporary public is of higher quality than before. “There are more and better readers, especially women. And what has hit a great change is the level of children’s and youth reading. The little ones are tremendous readers, although then they reach adolescence and that hobby is interrupted. Some return and others don’t. But no matter how many screens they have, children still like to read and the children’s book is an impressive success. “
They will be the market of the future, the ones that will continue to give life (and light) to businesses such as the one that Álvaro Sr. set up, Álvaro Jr. inherited and the third Álvaro continues as one of the city’s literary references.
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