With 42 percent of Spain’s population reporting to surveys that they’re not reading books, last week’s symposium in Madrid about bookselling had an extra edge of urgency.

‘The Essence of Their Identity’ by Valentina Morotti

On a yearly basis, the Cultural lab “Mexico-España” and the Santillana Foundation join forces to organize a forum, the goal of which is to focus reflection on a specific field in the arts.

Many experts gathered at the hall of the European Institute of Design (IED) in Madrid last Thursday (May 12) to discuss bookstores. Despite the romanticism that surrounds these places, they are maybe the ones paying the highest price in the evolution of the entire book value chain.That is why Pablo Raphael, director of the Mexican Institute in Spain, in his opening speech invited both the audience and the speakers to avoid future-and-past dualism, saying, “The future holds an old heart.”

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