Ana Santos: “My library is chaos” | Culture | EUROtoday

For ten years, Ana Santos has had probably essentially the most dream job for anybody who loves each books and the general public: director of the National Library of Spain (2013-2023). Once retired, this graduate in Geography and History born in Zaragoza 68 years in the past has received the Espasa Essay award with sow phrases, a journey of centuries via training and studying as a weapon of girls’s emancipation.

Ask. Have you managed to grasp the place inequality arises?

Answer. The secret’s training. They lived on what they needed to show them. And they weren’t prepared to allow them to study sure issues.

P. In the convent had been they freer than in marriage?

R. The convents had been a world of literate tradition. The ladies who entered needed to know easy methods to learn and write to depart a reminiscence of their beliefs. And they’d good libraries. I consider Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and others who selected a convent the place they felt freer than within the yoke of marriage. Now extra literature by nuns is being found, there is superb analysis.

P. Women had been thought-about inferior. Are there pockets that proceed to suppose so?

R. Without a doubt there are and lots of endure and endure it. Now politicians know that they’ve energy and a vote and so they defend ladies, however in some households, {couples} or work environments the consideration of inferiority continues. Where voting shouldn’t be executed, ladies are on the service of males.

P. Your private reminiscence of the Franco regime?

R. I needed to review journalism and so they would not let me as a result of I did not go away the home. I used to be rebellious, and the response was: “Horror! How is she going to leave? She’s crazy!” So I studied Geography and History, I took the library assistant exams in Zaragoza and I appreciated it a lot that I requested to switch to the Complutense University and stayed right here. My faculty separated girls and boys and was additionally classist. The ladies who paid had been separated from those that did not pay till they had been 14.

P. What occurred once they received collectively?

R. At first it was not simple, however then these ladies proved to be wonderful ladies, fantastic companions, at present we nonetheless meet, joyful to see one another. Furthermore, the whole lot was sin in that puritanism of Catholic morality. It was a sin to kiss a boy. And each time a boy kissed me or I kissed him I needed to go and confess. How to put on a bikini, the horror. It was a really emasculating upbringing and we lived in a bubble, a world that was not actual and from which, once you left, you slapped your self since you had not confronted actual life.

P. And by way of studying?

R. They purchased me loads of books and I learn the whole lot. A typical reward was the lives of saints, the Bible for kids…

P. Did he devour them?

R. Yes, certainly one of my youthful heroines was Genevieve of Brabant, a saint with a very invented life, who took refuge in a cave along with her child and a fawn that suckled her. I needed to be like her!

P. Why do you cease the story of your ebook in 1936, earlier than Franco’s rule?

R. I’ve associated occasions of the Franco regime with different historic durations during which comparable issues occurred. The ideology of the ladies’s part of Pilar Primo de Rivera with which we had been educated exercised monumental energy over ladies like my mom and contained submission to the husband. You needed to provide her the slippers when she arrived, not contradict her, gown as much as be stunning, abide by the marital debt and at all times be joyful and smiling. That training was similar to Fray Luis de León’s thought of ​​a lady in The excellent married or Luis Vives in The training of Christian ladies. I’ve additionally associated the Republic to the Transition.

P. Wasn’t the Transition slower than the Republic for ladies?

R. Definitely. The Republic was an explosion of creativity, freedom and rights in only a few years and so they had been very courageous. It was tougher for us as a result of we had endured a few years of dictatorship and concepts that had been very tough to interrupt in part of society that also exists.

P. What function does studying play within the emancipation of girls?

R. Fundamental. Since pastoral literature, ladies have been ready for the prince who will make them joyful. That is why it’s so essential that girls’s studying shouldn’t be censored.

P. Why do ladies learn greater than males?

R. It is the necessity to seek for different worlds and one other life as a result of maybe in yours you aren’t joyful, however you’re conscious that you simply wish to be. That ought to by no means be misplaced.

P. What is crucial factor when organizing a library?

R. Do it so that you simply discover the books: by genres, by authors, by collections, chronological or by sizes, which additionally occurs.

P. And what’s yours like?

R. Chaos (laughs).

P. Does the previous director of the National Library have chaos at dwelling?

R. Now I’ve it divided into two homes and once I search for one thing I usually cannot discover it and I purchase it once more. Where I’ve a lot of the books I’ve a currens quantity and a bit of card positioned because the books have arrived and an Excel to know easy methods to find it. Yes, I attempt to have genres: novel, poetry, artwork. And apart, the books that I studied in school.

P. It would not appear very chaotic.

R. The concept works, however then I search for Antonio Colinas and he’s in 4 locations (laughs). Things are arriving and so they do not match.

P. And as a public librarian, what do you advise?

R. That the books are as accessible and visual as doable as a result of worldwide requirements require a classification that the person, maybe, won’t discover.

P. Do you learn in digital format?

R. Nothing. Only digitized bibliography in accessible scientific repertoires. But literary creation I can not. For me, studying not solely provides me studying pleasure but additionally bodily pleasure. I like to choose up the ebook, odor it, flip the pages, see the typography, what paper it has, a lovely cowl or an illustrated version excites me. That aesthetic that the article exudes provides me loads of satisfaction and that’s the reason I favor paper books, the aesthetic pleasure of the article.

P. Do libraries nonetheless make sense?

R. Of course. Not solely as a result of it’s a place to take a mortgage however as a result of there’s something greater than only a ebook. Other persons are discovered.

P. Many individuals do not know the place to place the books when their grandfather dies.

R. It is a really massive downside and it occurs on a regular basis. Libraries have misplaced worth as a result of at present individuals suppose, study and inform issues in a really totally different manner and the flats are smaller. It is a disgrace as a result of they’re a pattern of their proprietor’s information and are distinctive collections.

P. What has directing the BNE introduced you?

R. When they known as me to direct it, I considered it so much due to that syndrome that all of us endure from, however dealing with the problem made me develop. It has been a privilege, there may be the treasure of our nation.

P. What was your most curious acquisition?

R. The private archives of creators comparable to Antonio Muñoz Molina, Luis Goytisolo, Rosa Montero, Juan Benet or the graphic humorists of the transition comparable to Forges and Peridis. There are additionally thousands and thousands of Spanish URLs. Organizing that enormous mass of information is the issue, however AI will certainly assist.