La Voz de Galicia – May 30, 2025 →
This week I found myself thinking about the things that, without us even realizing, shape who we are. About the small gestures that guide us, whose impact we’re not always fully aware of. I was reflecting on this while listening to an episode of my favorite radio show (“Documentos” from RNE), which was dedicated to the history of the now-defunct “Círculo de Lectores” (“Readers’ Circle”). I had never really considered the impact it had on my life that my sister Teté—the eldest of the four sisters—began her subscription to that incredible institution when I was still a little girl; or the impact of having the most important works of literature entering the home of a family like ours. My sister tells me that it all began the way things used to start—one day, an agent from the “Círculo” came to the house, and since she was an avid reader who spent much of her time at the public library, our mother agreed to join the club in order to start a family library that has stayed with us ever since, nourishing all of us sisters.
For decades, the “Círculo de Lectores” served as a kind of gateway to fiction, philosophy, poetry, and critical thinking for many families in Spain who had never before had access to the idea of building their own personal library. Raquel Jimeno, author of a book about the “Círculo”, said the club was “a symbol of the social advancement aspirations of the emerging middle class,” and as I listened to her, I thought about what it meant for our home… Because I am the daughter of that generation who believed literature was essential for growing as a human being—and I am also the lucky youngest sister who, thanks to the “Círculo”, grew up with a beautiful collection of books I hadn’t chosen, but that opened my eyes to the world…
