Thus, at the dawn of the twentieth century, the Universal Library of Francisco Vásquez Cobres, the National Library of Antonio Barreiro himself, the Modern Library and the Florencio Sánchez of Orsini Bertani arose, which actively contributed to the consolidation of an editorial field that made possible the diffusion of the first popular collections. Another Galician bookseller and publisher who did a lot was Claudio García, head of the bookstore and publishing house La Bolsa de los Libros.
In the 1990s, the duo Café Libros led by David Pesano gained momentum to the success they are today. Books and booksellers, responsible for the reading trail of countless anonymous readers. The place of books, as a space of mediation and its transcendence from the social and the political. The Library, that almost sacred enclosure of passions that leads to encounter and amplifies it.
Between bills and taxes
In addition to its particular aroma and flavour, coffee is usually an ally for reading and chatting with friends. At the corner of Avenida Rivera and Mario Casinoni is La Libélula, books and cafés. Faces and masks visited its director Nazarena Mendez Ingold, in full celebration of the night of the bookstores.
Her passion started when she was very young, since she has been liking books for as long as she can remember. “My grandmother Violeta had a bookshop in Tarariras called La Góndola. I dreamed of going to visit them and my greatest happiness was staying all day looking at their books, she tells us excitedly. In all her life, the owner of La Libélula, she has never taken off from books. And after having fulfilled the family mandate to obtain a degree in Communication Sciences at the Catholic University, she decided to open a bookstore of her own.
La Libélula is a space that invites you to read, very intimate where its large public seeks recommendations for good books and its owner gladly advises in a personalized way. Nazarena tells us that she specializes in children’s books and it shows. Since the early hours of Friday 19 at the Night of the Bookstores, La Libélula has filled with young people accompanied by their parents eager to enjoy a day full of stories and stories for children.
When we arrived at Escaramuza, the old house on Pablo de María street, everything was celebrating, they had moved half the bookshop to the street. We were received by Alejandro Lagazeta, its owner, who was preparing to start the celebration of the evenings in the bookshop, with a very varied presentation.
Lagazeta ventured into the world of books more than 20 years ago, when he was very young, with a stall at the Tristán Narvaja fair, open religiously every Sunday. He still remembers it as a descent to earth to not get dizzy. In addition to being a bookstore, Escaramuza is also a publishing house that completes a family, made up of La Lupa Bookstore and Criatura Libros Editorial, and proudly tells us that they have now added a distributor. Lagazeta reminds us with great pride that he was born in La Teja, attended school and high school in Villa Española, and studied administration at the ORT and UDE thanks to the owners of a yeast company, his first serious experience career, which have helped him move forward and grow.
His partner in Escaramuza is the Argentinian Pablo Braun, owner of the Eternal Cadence bookshop, which has the same format as a bookshop, café and publishing house that is located in the Palermo district. The recycled house on Pablo de María street where Escaramuza operates today is more than just a coffee bookshop. Today it is also a restaurant and an obligatory meeting place when we want to look for good books.
The foyer of the El Galpón Theater was transformed last Friday into a large bookshop. The editorial Banda Oriental presented several books published this year by journalist Alejandro Camino.
The 18 o’clock panorama of the traditional Teatro Montevideo accompanied at night has given way to a mostly youthful audience, who stormed the street as they explored the shelves of the Editorial in search of a good book to complement the evening. Caras y Caretas spoke with Gustavo Laborde, author of Flavors of the Nation, Cuisine and Identity in the History of Uruguay.
Gustavo Laborde tells us that he has a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Barcelona and a European master’s degree in the history and culture of food. He currently works as a professor at the Food School of UDELAR. He teaches Food History courses at Barcelona Culinary (Spain). He is the author of the book The roast. Origin, History, Ritual.
With a rigorous style and an original look, accessible to all audiences, Laborde tells us, we carry out research that we believe constitute a complete contribution in the field of food studies in Uruguay by consulting the available bibliography and archives.
Halfway between anthropology and history, it offers us a culinary interpretation of the process of building national consciousness and the identity of Uruguayans.
Although the cuisine of the country is not usually considered a central element that constitutes nationalism, this book shows through its pages the close relationship that has existed between the cuisine and the forging of “nationality”, as an embodiment of nationalism.The values most emblematic and ideals of Uruguayan identity.
