The history of the San Sebastian bookstore Lagun is linked to the last six decades of Basque sociopolitical vicissitudes, both from a global perspective and, particularly, at a local level. It emerged in 1968, in a context of change and political effervescence, as a breath of freedom from the cultural poverty of the dictatorship and linked to the world of the left. He paid the price for freedom by suffering repeated attacks from far-right elements. A few years later, he became the target of the kale borroka, of the most radical intolerance, and a symbol of resistance against ETA. Now, the bookstore closes in an uncertain global context, given the difficulties to compete with large stores and the sale of books through the hegemonic platforms.
An emotional act served on Thursday to say goodbye to his career. Ella lagun –which means friend in Basque– said goodbye surrounded by some of the friends who have accompanied her in the 55 years of her life. In good times and, especially, in bad times, like when in 1996, after an attack by the kale borroka, these “friends” crowded together to buy pieces that had been smashed to pieces.
Lagun's story also arises from friendship, from the relationship of a group of San Sebastian, politically and culturally restless. On the one hand, María Teresa Castells and her husband José Ramón Recalde; and another Ignacio Latierro. His wife, Rosa Cuezva, would be another of Lagun's legs. Linked in their day to the FLP (Popular Liberation Front; in Euskadi, ESBA), Latierro and Castells coincided in activities of a political nature, but above all in "film clubs, conferences, art exhibitions or in the theater", recalls Lattierro himself. , for whom the emergence of Lagun is not understood without that political and cultural context. “It was a moment of change. In those years, new bookstores were opened throughout the Spanish geography; In Barcelona, for example, Cinc d'Oros opens, who are very close friends. Lagun is the convergence between the will of María Teresa Castells to be a bookseller and the political and cultural climate of the moment”.
Latierro, in fact, highlights that in the rise of anti-Francoism in those years "there is an important cultural element": "There is a movement of rebellion and protest against the cultural shortage of Francoism and censorship. That generates a movement in which we are included”.
The bookstore, initially located in the Old Town of San Sebastian, became a symbol of that movement. Books and magazines not authorized by the regime are sold, although Latierro highlights other aspects: “The most characteristic thing was that the offer of books tried to be very current. In addition, we wanted it to be a meeting place, a gathering place or a chat between people; not a place of strictly political meetings, as has been said”.
Lagun was received with hostility by sectors related to the regime. In 1970 he positioned himself against the Burgos process and, already in 1975, Castells spent a month in prison for promoting a strike among merchants to protest the death sentences of ETA members Txiki and Otaegi, together with three members of the FRAP . The first attack by small groups of the extreme right took place in 1972. After the death of the dictator, especially between 1976 and 1978, the attacks by these groups multiplied. Lagun came to suffer an attack with a homemade device. The essay Where books are burned. Political violence against bookstores 1962-2018 (Tecnos, 2023), by Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla and Juan Francisco López Pérez, collects these and other episodes.
The bookstore was able to breathe a certain air of freedom in the following years, although tensions began to arise with the nationalist left, which was becoming strong in the Old Town. The most serious took place in 1983. Lagun refused to support a strike over the death of Antonio Tolosa, an ETA member who died when the device he was handling exploded. They didn't forgive him. He definitely became an enemy for the most radical Abertzale sector. The situation became untenable in the mid-90s, when ETA promoted the strategy of "socialization of suffering". “We joined the blue ribbon initiative and placed a tribute book to Gregorio Ordóñez in the window. The attacks and the pressure multiplied”, remembers Latierro.
At Christmas 1996 there was a wave of attacks against the bookstore, which ended with the window smashed and books burned. The intimidation, however, stirred up a tide of solidarity. “Something extraordinary happens. The people who go to the bookstore to buy books that are stained or have glass, to the point that, without making any formal decision, we continue working, on our own ”, he indicates.
That solidarity of the friends of Lagun became evident again in the year 2000. “After the attacks of 1996 we lived in a time of certain tranquility. We shield ourselves and, furthermore, I think that someone in that world must have thought that attacking bookstores was not aesthetically very presentable. The year 2000, however, was terrible. After the truce, ETA assassinated Juan Mari Jauregi and José Luis López de Lacalle, personal friends with a common political trajectory to mine”, says Latierro. In addition, they tried to assassinate José Ramón Recalde, the husband of María Teresa Castells and a historic socialist militant. They began to fear, not for attacks on his bookstore, but for his life.
The police forces could not guarantee their safety in the Old Town, and they had to “go into exile”. A new “solidarity movement” allowed them to settle in a safer place, in the center. There, in his local Urdaneta street, Lagun has seen how the Basque Country advanced towards political normalization and conquered the defeat of terrorism. He has finally breathed the freedom that he sought since his birth. This bookstore, "very much of its time", however, has not been able to with the giants that monopolize trade today, also in the field of culture. And Lagun has said goodbye as a symbol of freedom as it emerged in 1968. Adiorik ez, Lagun (goodbye).
