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Ana Serrano says that childhood memories are always the ones that mark the most. The least smudge. His are located in the discreet back room of the bookstore that his father, lawyer and professor of Language and Literature, opened after being retaliated after the war. "

My parents were literally hungry until they loaned them money

to start the business. I was not born yet," says Ana on the other end of the phone.

This is how Pérgamo opened its doors in 1944, in the heart of the Salamanca district. From her first years of life, Ana clearly remembers how, sitting on a ladder that leaned against the wall, she

spent hours browsing books when she could barely read

. Later, when he learned, he read

The Lady of the Camellias the same

as the Guillermo Brown collection. "My little boy's name is Guillermo precisely because of him. He was a fan."

In that back room he spent the first 14 years of life. From nine in the morning to nine at night. His mother was also his teacher. When he wasn't teaching her, Ana helped in whatever way she could: from making balls of the ropes that tied the boxes of books, to putting sawdust on the ground when it rained. Later,

although he did up to five careers at the conservatory, his life continued to be linked to the bookstore

. The months of September and October, with the beginning of the school year, were especially busy. "We lived all year on what was sold in those two months," he says.

Today, with

a "Clearance" and another "For Rent" sign on the shop window

, all these memories seem out of date. Almost withered. The oldest bookstore in Madrid, with which only the Felipa Bookstore, for second-hand books, competes in antiquity, will soon close. To the phagocytization of Amazon is added the lack of a relief that never came neither for Ana nor for her sister Lourdes. "She is the one who has always been. She has been here for 50 years. Now she has turned 80," says Ana about her sister. "

We have told him that we do not want him to break his hip here. That we have to close.

We have been languishing. And so we are leaving."

Inside, Ana harbors the hope that the business that in her parents' time supported up to four families will continue to be a bookstore when they are gone.

Although skepticism is stronger than encouragement.

He fears that those interested in taking over the premises and maintaining the same activity will back down when paying the rent.

"Perhaps the accounts will not come out," he laments.

"When a bookstore is lost, it is a tragedy, a step towards vulgarization, barbarism.

Every time a bookstore closes, it makes me want to put on the crepe

".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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