The Valencian publishing sector has been strongly affected by the floods resulting from DANA that shook the territory two weeks ago. Bookstores completely destroyed, warehouses flooded, the editorial fund lost and distribution problems, apart from the human damage.
In l’Horta Sud there are a dozen bookstores affected by the flood, which are trying to recover as best they can. One of them, Somnis de Paper, belongs to Jorge Cabezas, who has been affected three times: a resident of Benetússer, a municipality that is still removing mud from the streets, he is also a bookseller in the same town and editor of Fuera de Route. The flood, through the Chiva ravine, took everything away.
The reconstruction tasks barely leave him time to answer questions. The responses show the magnitude of the tragedy: “We have not had any (human) loss, which is already a lot,” he says on the other end of the phone, in an audio note. The bookseller and publisher has lost practically all the funds they have and is unsure about how to face the reconstruction. Days later, in a new conversation with this newspaper, the support received seems like a boost: “People are coming forward, everyone wants to help,” either with purchases, financial contributions or cleaning work. Many volunteers have gone to the town, he says. The first days, he says, they didn’t know what to do with the bookstore, but the flood of solidarity seems to have worked emotionally. However, bookstores must combine particular aid, such as calls to purchase online with the application for aid, which require a formal cessation of activity.
From the same town as the heads are the authors Cristina Durán and Miguel Ángel Giner, national design prize, with the workshop razed. The couple and their two daughters live in a ground floor and converted the adjacent premises into their work studio and coworking for other creators, the Crane Studio. They are still taking mud from the workshop, as they told elDiario.es nine days after the tragedy began.
To channel aid to bookstores, the Gremi de Llibrers has set up an account in which to collect donations. In publications on social networks, they warn that many of the victims, such as La Muixeranga (Paiporta), do not have a website and that it can be complex to opt for a solidarity purchase if the establishment does not have infrastructure. The Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Associations of Bookstores (CEGAL) has also promoted a campaign so that bookstores that so indicate can allocate 10% of the amount of sales on Monday, November 11, to their affected colleagues.
Thirteen days after the storms, the damage assessment is still being prepared. The Associació d’Editorials del País Valencià estimates that there are 29 publishers directly affected. For them they represent 35% of their partners and they are still quantifying the loss. Added to this is the uncertainty of the Christmas campaign, which started in November, and which for publishers that do not work with textbooks represents close to 40% of a year’s sales. There are also 16 libraries and historical archives that have suffered damage. The president of the AEPV, Àfrica Ramírez, who recognizes the uncertainty, sends a strong message: “The publishing sector is not alone.” The unions will turn to them.
Many publishers had their distribution between Riba-Roja and Paiporta-Picanya, in their industrial estates, with Gea Llibres and Sendra-Marco as the main victims. The funds are practically destroyed, as the shared images show. One of the workers informally tells how he and his colleagues saved themselves by going up to the upper floor of the warehouse and burst the vending machine to have something to eat until they could leave the industrial estate. The ingenuity of many workers prevented them from being locked in and saved other colleagues.
The publishing house Sembra Llibres saved its offices, but has lost a good part of its funds. Only those that were in the Catalunya distributor are saved. At the moment they have had to delay a couple of releases and they don’t know what will become of the books they had just published. Mercè Pérez, editor, explains that in addition to the material damage, uncertainty about upcoming campaigns is added, shared throughout the union. She regrets that there are colleagues who have suffered harm to their own flesh and advocates “responding to the emergency, helping other colleagues through mutual support initiatives.” In his words there is some guilt for being well personally and fearing for his business, which is his method of subsistence. “It’s a strange feeling,” he admits. It is a collective discomfort and uncertainty that, according to mental health experts, will materialize among those affected.
Reconstruction plan
The Ministry of Culture has launched the Reconstruction Plan for Valencian Culture and the areas affected by DANA, with direct aid to movie theaters and bookstores and a new line for the reconstruction of the publishing sector, the performing arts and music, although the endowment will be known in the coming days. Minister Ernest Urtasun indicated that the National Emergency and Risk Management Plan in Cultural Heritage has been activated, whose coordinator has already organized human and technical resources (architects and restorers) so that they can be mobilized when the communities require it. .
This plan will develop tasks of evacuation and in situ protection of assets, damage assessment, carrying out the first emergency tasks and a medium and long-term heritage recovery plan.
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