BACKGROUND

-In 1968, María Teresa Castells and Ignacio Latierro opened the bookshop, Lagun, in the Old Quarters of San Sebastian. From the beginning, they had to overcome the Francoist censorship and attacks by right-wing groups.

-In the 1980s, they begin to suffer the violence of radical Basque nationalists, who broke windows, threw petrol bombs and paint cans, painted threats on the walls and even burned books.

-In 2000, the bookshop closed following an attack by ETA against María Teresa’s husband, Jose Ramon Recalde.

-One year later, in 2001, she reopened the shop outside the Old Quarters, where life was quieter and the attacks stopped. However, in 2010, threatening graffiti reappeared against Jose Ramon Recalde.

CONSEQUENCES

“We opened the bookshop in the Old Quarters of San Sebastian in 1968. We sold all kinds of books but apparently some people thought our books defended a certain ideology”.

“At the time, the Legionaries of Christ the King (far right) would write “Arriba España!” or “Nationalists out” or things like that, but that was all. Except for one year, when they used firecrackers which smashed the window a bit. But later, with ETA, it would have been better to be able to disappear. Every day during the Christmas of 1996 they did something. When we arrived at the bookshop, all the windows were broken and everything as a mess, they had even burned some books”.

“Sometimes a strike was called and I didn’t go on strike. Then, they would come and tell us that it was very important that our library, Lagun, should close. Those were horrible years. The police would come but they would go away again quickly. I asked them why they were leaving, if we had to stay on guard in the shop all night because anyone could get in and steal the books or whatever. They told me that their instructions were to have a look and leave. My son, Andrés, was very excited. He told them that if they planted a bomb in Bilintx (another bookshop in the Old Quarters of San Sebastian) they would be sure to find the culprit at once, but if they planted one in Lagun, the did nothing”.

“The attacks against the bookshop ended in the year 2000, because we had to close. They had begun roughly in the 1980s and were constant. We were even attacked when the bookshop was open. On one occasion, two young men came in and emptied a can of yellow paint and another of red paint. My younger daughter was working in the bookshop and she ran out behind them, following their painted footprints on the ground because, as the attack was so precipitate, they had stepped on the paint. The footprints led to their headquarters, a place where they used to meet. Then we went to report it as usual. We told the Police but they said it might have been as we said but that there was no proof. We told them to go and look at the footprints but they told us that they couldn’t go into the Old Quarters because people threw objects on them from the balconies”.

“We had to take some type of precaution because of the attacks against the bookshop but the police said they couldn’t be there all night. When the bookshop had been damaged, we thought the police would stay until we had repaired it a bit, installed some windows or sheets of wood”.

“In spite of the many years of constant attacks on our business, I never thought about quitting. Sometimes I may have thought it was perhaps better to leave the Old Quarters of San Sebastian. When my husband Jose Ramon Recalde was attacked (he was seriously injured by a gunshot fired by someone belonging to ETA) the situation changed. We realised that things were getting very serious and we closed the shop in the Old Quarters. Almost one year later, we reopened outside the Old Quarters, in another central street in San Sebastián. It was a quiet area and although it was in the centre, there were fewer people. The situation changed for the better and there were no attacks. It is a very good site because it is near the headquarters of the PP and the PSOE and the police is nearer than in the Old Quarters. They are more about.”

“When they attacked the shop, they would break the windows, when there was a strike, they would break the lock so that we couldn’t get in. They would throw flammable things inside or pour red and yellow paint… Threatening messages against my husband and the shop manager, Ignacio Latierro, were also written on the walls”.

“On one occasion they got into the shop, piled up some books and burned them. It was at night and I didn’t see it because I was in bed. They told me that they had burned them outside the shop, under the arches in the square, and started to dance around the fire”.

“Sometimes people would queue up after a violent attack on the shop. When they burned the books, a long queue of people formed because they wanted to get the burned books, even if you couldn’t read them. I was surprised at so much enthusiasm. Those were things that were broadcast at the time. We feel a lot of support from people and never felt that we were alone. A high school teacher took the book that had been most damaged and placed it in his secondary school to show what should never be done to books. He framed it and hung it up”.