Iconic bookshop Solidaridad sold to Leandro Leviste

CULTURAL LANDMARK Solidaridad Bookshop is a stone’s throw away from what used to be the prewar Ateneo campus (now Robinsons mall). Behind it, a block away, is Za’s Cafe, Dolphy’s favorite coffee shop, also known for its popular “ensaymadas.” —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Solidaridad Bookshop, the iconic literary institution in Manila founded by the late National Artist for Literature F. Sionil José, has been sold to Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste.

The management of the bookshop established in 1965 made the announcement on Sunday on its Facebook page, stating that this will “ensure Solidaridad’s continued operations and help preserve the legacy of F. Sionil José with the continued advice of the José family.”

The post noted that Leviste’s mother, Sen. Loren Legarda, was a “longtime friend” of the bookshop’s founder.

Leviste in a statement said: “We thank the Jose family for entrusting us with Solidaridad. We hope they can remain involved and help ensure that the Bookshop’s operations stay true to its history and the legacy of F. Sionil José.”

Sphere of influence

Sionil José founded Solidaridad—named after the publication of the 19th-century ilustrado movement—on Padre Faura Street in Manila’s historic district of Ermita. The property on which the bookshop and publishing house stood is owned by the ancestors of his wife, Teresita Jovellanos José.

“Solidaridad was the gathering place for many of the Philippines’ literary giants, writers, intellectuals, academics, cultural workers, and civic leaders. The bookshop has hosted numerous international luminaries in the field of literature, culture and the arts,” Solidaridad posted on its FB page.

Even diplomats, senators and other public officials paid a courtesy call to Sionil José during the bookshop’s heyday.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, Sionil José organized forums on land reform, the US bases, and other key issues at that time, attended by the leading intellectuals on those fields. National Artist Nick Joaquin and Senators Benigno Aquino Jr. and Jose Diokno were among his frequent visitors in these discussions. Sionil José also gathered there the surviving founders of the Hukbalahap movement, the most serious antigovernment threat in the country’s postwar era.

The bookshop’s owner and manager, novelist and journalist F. Sionil José, held many memorable discussions with the country’s leading intellectuals from the arts, public service, law, foreign affairs and other fields. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The place remained his sphere of influence even after it was destroyed by a fire, then promptly rebuilt.

Solidaridad’s immediate neighbors and the district of Ermita itself also became characters in Sionil José’s fiction. A beggar outside the bookshop whom Sionil José befriended became the main character in one his stories, “Gagamba” (“Spider”).

Solidaridad Bookshop was also called “Asia’s biggest little bookshop” for having the widest collection of Filipiniana books in the Philippines, which gave Filipino authors an “outlet for displaying and selling their publications,” the post said.

“The unique selection of books at this legendary bookshop were specially curated by F. Sionil José, who singularly selected all the books that are sold,” it added.

Transition

In January 2022, F. Sionil José had himself confined at a Makati hospital and died in his sleep there. He was 97 years old. His wife Teresita, fondly remembered as Tessie, died in October the same year.

Following their deaths, their eldest son, Antonio “Tonet” José managed the bookshop prior to its sale to Leviste.

“Our family will always cherish the memory of Solidaridad and the work our parents put into it. We are excited about the transition to the new ownership and wish them success as they continue the legacy of F. Sionil Jose,” Antonio said in the post.