Last Friday was the tenth anniversary of La Calders. It is an independent, medium-sized bookstore, with an abundant and well-chosen collection, located in the Pere Calders passage in Barcelona. In the open-plan space, there are tables and shelves full of books, a piano and a W on the wall. The illustrator Pau Badia painted it with a brush and red paint on August 15, 2016 or 2017 – witnesses do not agree – between parties and readings about the writer Francisco Casavella. And August 15, 1971 was the day of Watusi in Casavella's novel of the same name, in which there is a moment when Ws appear painted all over Barcelona.
Casavella was a friend of the people who helped start the bookstore and a neighbor of the neighborhood. And for La Calders he is his favorite writer. They always have a lot of copies of El día del Watusi, they recommend it left and right, they place it on the Sant Jordi stall and they answer those who ask, intrigued, what that W painted on the wall is.
These days there is a happy coincidence that the Teatre Lliure has premiered the magnificent adaptation by Iván Morales of El día del Watusi, as if it were joining the celebration. Enric Auquer leaves his skin and soul playing the protagonist, Fernando Atienza, who begins as a 13-year-old boy who lives in the barracks of Montjuïc and, apart from dedicating himself to running errands and tricks, has the ability to know how to make a bridge in a car.
To celebrate the anniversary of La Calders they are going to wait until June, when the Sant Jordi rush will have passed. In the midst of the success that a bookstore can endure today for ten years, Isabel Sucunza, the soul of La Calders, tells me that they are already thinking about some events. One of the ideas is to repeat two activities that at the time were a failure: the presentation of Permagel, which was attended by three people (after a few days, Eva Baltasar loved it) and a tribute to Shirley Jackson, with the editor of Tiny Valeria Bergalli and zero assistants. They will repeat them just as they were then. And if they succeed, they will repeat them again in ten years.
It is in that idea of failure where Sucunza makes the connection with the Watusi: “No matter what we do, we will never leave the barracks.” Long live books and good vibes to La Calders!
