Now we have realized that our city is only good for walking around, and is full of franchises and businesses intended exclusively for tourists. Nobody saw it coming and now it is an inconvenience, because they say, it endangers business models linked to our culture, call them bars, local businesses that range from shoe stores, hardware stores to espadrille stores. The configuration of Valencia responds only to tourist interests. We witness, perplexed, the disintegration of a way of being and living the city. We are all Paco Martínez Soria in the film "The city is not for me."
We have to adapt to tourism, instead of adapting to local customs. What's the point of traveling to find the same thing in every city? The monuments… the gastronomy? I understand, that's why they keep opening taco shops, Argentine empanadas, hamburger restaurants, pizzerias, Asian restaurants... Neighborhood life no longer exists, there is no neighborhood roots, there are no stories to tell. It is the first time this has happened in Valencia. The first victims will be the fallas of the center, except Convento Jerusalem, because their falleros have never lived in the neighborhood, they have their homes in Santa Bárbara, Rocafort, Godella, high-end areas; But the rest of the commissions from the historic center or neighborhoods like Russafa and Zaidía, those will notice the progress of the neighbors and local businesses that sponsored the llibret de la falla.
Last week, without going any further, they gave us very bad news, the closure of the San Nicolas oven; one of the oldest in Valencia, with more than 300 years of history. The local media reported that its owner could not financially meet the Health demands and was forced to lower the shutters. It will surely end up being a Carrefour Express. Logical on the other hand. Who can resist the onslaught of investment funds? It is no longer the center, it is practically the entire city that crunches between the jaws of wild tourism, a crusher of identity and natural resources. More than a year ago, Forbes magazine put its target on Valencia: “The best city in the world to live in.” Lie, to invest, and so it is happening. Something very big will have to happen to avoid ending in a Greek tragedy. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of Sophocles.
Act one (Prologue)
The regional administration is clear about it. Nuria Montes, tourism councilor, responded to my question, whether with the reduction of her department's budget by 15 percent, she contemplated the possibility of boosting the tourist tax. She looked at me with a face like... But where are you going, baldheaded woman? And he assured that the Consell will not only brush off the tourist tax shortly, but that in a few days, at the World Travel Market in London, one of the most important fairs in the sector, it will present “Valencian Community Tax Free territory” as the main line tourism strategy for the coming years. This means that at Disneyland they are not going to charge an entrance fee and we Valencians are going to pay the price dressed as Donald, Uncle Gilito, Jorgito, Juanito and Jaimito. Especially Gilitos.
Second Act (Episode)
In about 6 months the tourist oil stain has spread throughout the quilt of the capital and expelling neighbors and businesses from the historic center. It's more than brutal, it's unparalleled. Small merchants were already discouraged by the pandemic, Amazon and Lefties, are now in a coma. If we add to their woes a surreptitious rent increase or a tempting economic offer to transfer the business, goodbye, good luck, here they go to the Ateneo Mercantil and they set up a H
Act Three (Exodus)
The fatum (fatal destiny) of the Valencian Community. Losing what little we have left of urban cultural identity, the classic hospitality industry disappearing, and municipal markets stop selling to become something else.
Unexpected plot twist
An incendiary idea, going out in a kaleborroko plan to claim our bars. As? With traditional bar franchises. It doesn't work, it was tried years ago with Barriobar, it's now history. The Chinese are in it but they are not convincing in the long run. There are also national entrepreneurs who have found successful formulas: 100 montaditos, La Sureña, impersonal franchises that are going down. It's so hard to replicate authenticity. Although there are places that get it like Trinquete Pelayo, Casa Baldo 1915, Barx. New hotel with convincing speeches doing things well. There is chicha, work and ideas there, but not everyone can undertake projects of that magnitude.
Municipal markets as a refuge for authentic gastronomy? If there is no room on the street because everything is filled with vulgar and repetitive franchises, it wouldn't be a bad idea to put our classic bars alongside producers and sellers in the markets. Union make force. It would be the last barricade we could build to defend ourselves. I see the future as bad, very bad.
Epilogue
I have realized that Cacau D'Or and Wikipaella are two desperate cries to the exaltation of our hospitality and gastronomic identity. Call me nostalgic.
