Lucía Alonso is the last heir to Hijos de Santiago Rodríguez, the bookstore that her great-great-grandfather founded in Burgos 173 years ago.

Lucía has just inherited the bookstore from her mother, Mercedes, the great-granddaughter of Santiago Rodríguez. The only women in charge of a business that has traditionally been passed from father to son.

The Hijos de Santiago Rodríguez bookstore, which opened its doors in 1850, is located in Burgos.  It is the oldest independent bookstore in Spain and the fifth in Europe. Unlike the other four -Matras, Bertrand, Hatchards and Galignani-, which surpass it in longevity, it has not succumbed to offers from big businessmen to change ownership. Despite its multiple transfers within the Castilian-Leonese city, it preserves "the same philosophy that it had at the time of its establishment, “bringing reading closer to the people," as Lucía Alonso Rodríguez assures.

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