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It’s a pretty mean feat, especially in the Philippines where reading a book has got nothing on TV, and especially today when the Internet lords over pretty much everything; but here Solidaridad is, celebrating 50 glorious years.
In case you aren’t aware, La Sol is F. Sionil Jose’s famed bookshop located on Padre Faura Street near Adriatico in Ermita, Manila. Brylle Tabora wrote a nice story on it, which was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer today. There, we learned these 11 bits of head-nodding facts about the owner and the bookshop.
1. Boredom pretty much gave birth to this bookshop.
According to the PDI article, the National Artist for Literature “said his job paid very well, but he found it very boring.” He was the information officer of Colombo Plan in Sri Lanka. “At that time, he was receiving an annual grant of $10,000 from the Congress for Cultural Freedom of the United States to set up a journal.” With the grant and the money saved from his job, he came home to start a publishing house. Of course, he needed office space.
2. F. Sionil Jose is obedient to his in-laws.
It was his father-in-law who told him of the old Jovellano house in Ermita. Jose liked it but thought it was too big…
3. The bookshop was his wife’s idea.
Coming from Jose’s judgement that the house was too big, the missus suggested they use some of the space as a book shop. So in June 1965, Solidaridad was born. “Solidaridad Publishing House was put up the same year the bookshop opened,” notes Tabora.
4. It was the fourth bookshop in Metro Manila.
When it opened, there were only three bookshops in Metro Manila: National, Alemars, and Po’s in Santa Cruz, Manila.
5. It’s an essential Manila pitstop to VIPS.
Ninoy Aquino was a frequent visitor. Three Nobel Prize laureates — Wole Soyinka of Nigera, Gunter Grass of Germany, and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru — have made a pitstop at Solidaridad. And Nick Joaquin, Jose’s BFF, used to always be there a lot, too.
6. At one point, it became the HQ for the Philippine Center of International PEN (Poets and playwrites, essayists, novelists).
A monthly PEN event still happens at Solidaridad every last Saturday of the month.
7. In 1967, it was believed to be a “CIA front” with Jose as an agent.
8. The place is haunted.
“I believe in paranormal phenomena which you could not explain rationally. When we first came here, evidences [of a ghost] were clear to us, like doors banging even though there was no wind. One of the waiters during an event said there was an old woman in the store room.”
9. It holds the most number of books by local authors in any book shop across the country.
“You would not find as many Filipino books in any book shop in the country except in Solidaridad,” Jose exclaims proudly.
10. At one point, he was offered to expand Solidaridad to Cubao and Makati.
He refused.
11. Jose believes La Solidaridad lives on because it owns the building and pays no rent.
12. The book shop gives Jose pleasure.
Because it keeps me up to date on literature and writers. I know what’s going on.”
13. His promises warm the heart and he speaks the truth. “
The bookstore will go on, in spite of the fact that more and more people read digital copies of books. The truth is, there’s nothing like holding a book.”
Photo: Jilson Tui/Philippine Daily Inquirer
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