Where all the demonstrations start,” they just opened the Eva Forest bookstore, looking at Plaza Bilbao, in the corner leading Hala Bedi. More than symbolic is the reference to manifestations, because the library intends to be a space that gives importance to social movements and struggles. As already mentioned in the discourse of the act of openness, it is about functioning as a meeting point to “reduce the present of capitalist cruelty”, “to build a world without exploitation that is worth living in”. Meeting space to think, reflect and enjoy, another nice space for the Basque Country, approximately 170 square meters.

“Something like catacras, but like that in Vitoria. And minor, of course.” These words came to the journalist a few months ago. By that time, they had been spending time buying something and shaping the project. Like all the works from all over the place, those from the Eva Forest library have been delayed and when it seemed to open in November, it opened its doors in early December, with an interesting cultural programme. As soon as the door is opened, the visitor meets a cafeteria with half a dozen tables. Do not be surprised if the table on the left is always occupied, which is a good place to be to enjoy coffee, infusions, toast, juices, etc., purchased from small shops and neighborhood producers.

It is also clear that utopia has no age limit. The space is adapted to the little ones, starting from the ground, it is not a particularly clumsy place to drag, but the children have their own corner, adapted to their needs, to play quietly. In addition, the part of the bookstore begins in it; at the back of the children's corner, books can be found on the shelves for the little ones. There are still some bookshelves to be filled, but it can be said that bookshops have a political character in terms of the denomination of bookshelves: environmentalism, LGTBIQ+, political theory, anarchism, sociology or education (at a quick glance you can find half a dozen books on the influence of gender on children). Marxism has taken three shelves, for example. And all the volumes of Marx's Capital are there, in sight. As one friend told the other at the opening ceremony, “everything is said.”

Another way to do this is with
seven partners, including Xabi Lasa. It is a person that the visitor will be able to find in the library, two people of the association will also work, but in general they will be responsible for the cafeteria.

“We had an idea for a long time, by necessity, of how things can be done differently,” says Lasa. Talk beyond the book shop and cafeteria: “We want to look for another way of living in the future. It's not just work, it's the way to make decisions. How to organize our lives.” This idea has been revolved around seeking answers to the questions and for what purpose.

What will the library build in the heart of the Alavesa capital? The expectation is great. The project promoters are excited. “Vitoria has always been a very university city. That doesn't mean college students read a lot, but there are young people interested in receiving something like this. Maybe they're content they can't receive in college. Our intention is to offer a new vision. Pulling away all disciplines, always seeking that utopia of the world.”

The journey of utopia requires space: “Being a cafeteria offers a space to function as a meeting point, but it also has that other point of knowledge. That is, the library also serves to reflect, to think, to share points of view and to meet people. This is aesthetic and ethical, right?”

Books in honor of Eva
Forest and utopia. Library. Pulling out different words and concepts, the proposal launched by a friend was to create the term library. From the beginning it seemed great.

The recognition of thinker and writer Eva Forest has not come by chance either, as it has been a reference person for project members, politically in general, and even personally for some, for their friendship. As Lasa told ARGIA before the inauguration, the opening manifesto also stated: “It’s not just an exercise in memory. It has been a reference for us in feminism, in the liberation of women and in internationalism, as well as in the denunciation of torture. Eva Forest is the present of the war on capital. I felt any injustice against anyone anywhere in the world. Our library project is a contribution from members who share the objective of a system that will not be repressed.”

Forest launched three editorials. Through mobile book models he worked publishing outside the market of the large publishers to publicize works by writers outside of current thinking. He published works by Alfonso Sastre, Dario Fo, Noam Chomsky and Harold Pinter, among others.

Another feature that links library members to Eva Forest life is: Emigration and residence in the Basque Country. Because not all members of the group are Vitorians, Alaveses or Basques. Lasa: “We have people coming from other places in the group. One from Madrid, for example, was in the collective Traficantes del Sueño, whose experience has been very enriching. Eva Forest was a Catalan of birth, but she came to Euskal Herria with her ways of life and thought, as some of our colleagues did.”

After long months and
many hours of work, the Eva Forest libropy has stopped. With all the nervousness, the members of the project were delighted during the minutes before the inaugural event. We talked between the books with Xabi Lasa, because there was a lot of movement next to the bar in the cafeteria, and one day he has taken care of the noise that has come through the door. “Look,” Lasa points out: “We got out at the door for emergency cases, we told them that if it is emergency we would have to put Exit.” They climb a ladder when it was barely ten minutes before the small repair was seven. “So we’ve been working, as you can see. There have been a lot of people going around here, they have offered us a lot of hands.”

The space, in principle, had to be closed until seven in the afternoon, and then open it, say, to the “general population.” But there have been so many people who have joined the auzolans, even in the last few days, that the shutter has been going up and down in the minutes before the opening. To make an idea, two weeks before opening the walls, they weren't painted and there were no books or modest books. The partners and partners of the association may say that it would not be possible without the help of those working for free. They have had words of thanks to everyone: “It’s a project that we’ve formed among many people: the one who has already participated, the one who is here and the one that we hope to participate soon.”

“It’s like a delivery,” Lasa tells us by moving the conversation with a friend: “The person who works at the pizzas cooperative Malatesta of Navarra told me the other day that these projects are like a delivery. A child doesn't do it in nine months, he needs his time. We are taking time and we will take more, everything we need.”

Now tap mimar. They have organised an elegant programme before the Christmas holidays, and from January they would like to take the necessary steps for them to function as talks, training and a corner of thought. The following year will be decisive. It takes shape. Take a little space in the sphere.