Foreword: The building of the oldest shoe shop in Lavapiés, Calzados Vinigon, was purchased by a vulture fund and, being unable to pay a higher rent, María Jesús has been forced to close permanently. Follow our brand-new documentary in-the-making @SoyTribulete7 as we finish filming and begin editing, telling the stories we’ve documented as we go.
Author: Leah Pattem
“Seeing children being born and then seeing them grow, that is very exciting for those of us who have a neighbourhood store because you see how each child develops their personality, and how they find their place in the world.”
María Jesús is the owner of Calzados Vinigon, a traditional shoe shop on Calle Tribulete 7 that has over 80 years of history. As the third generation in her family to run the shop and with over 20 years’ experience herself serving the neighbourhood’s customers, she understands how valuable her role as a shop keeper has been.
“Beyond selling, it is a feeling of human warmth, of relationships that save you from many bad and ugly things in life. Many mental health problems come from the fact that there is no human relationship – that very human relationship provided by the neighbourhood, by the street, and by the store. You tell me your sorrows and I tell you mine. Maybe we might fix something.”
Last night, María Jesús served her last customers. “We’re closing. The world is transforming at incredible speeds and the small store has a hard time adapting to those very, very rapid changes.” One of those changes was the landlord of her shop. After the entire building on Calle Tribulete 7 was purchased by vulture fund Elix Rental Housing, María Jesús was cornered into accepting that her already-struggling business was never going to be revived. So, with the threat of increase of rent, María Jesús decided to cut her losses and close permanently.
However, being one of the neighbourhood’s greatest hosts for close to a century, she wanted to throw a party – not to mourn the loss of the legendary Lavapiés shoe shop, but to celebrate what we had all this time and the relationships that have formed as a result.
“I see life with certain values that are also transcendental. I try to see the positive side of the things that happen to us, because otherwise this life would be shit.”
One of the positive things that has come out of the closure of Calzados Vinigon is to have physically been able to see the way the neighbourhood has come together in the fight against gentrification. To see the power of coming together in itself equals power, and more and more power every time it happens. To know you’re not alone in the fight against gentrification is like standing on the safe side of a giant, fortified seawall. Even if it’s not real.
If there was only one argument to get involved in neighbourhood resistance, last night’s final shoe shop blow-out was it. And respect to María Jesús for not only giving a thousand hugs last night, but also giving away the last of her espadrilles. I have a feeling those shoes won’t be worn, but treasured as a reminder of what we’re in the midst of: the fight for the right to stay put.
What this shoe shop meant to the barrio echoes a story that has been told too many times in Madrid, but I’m telling it again because it is one of the many acts of resistance we have.
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