Do you have a book for Bahía Blanca? A campaign is collecting copies for flooded libraries.

They say a book's worst enemy is water. No, not fire. The title of Manuel Rivas's unforgettable novel, "Books Burn Badly," already says it. Water, on the other hand, moves quickly, ravaging the pages, sticking them together, bending and deforming them, and, in its attempt to separate them, blurring them. The family and public libraries of the city of Bahía Blanca tragically learned all this when, on March 7 of this year, a storm swept away the streets, houses, cars, and nearly twenty lives. And thousands of books. That's why the Filba Foundation launched a donation campaign this week to refurbish them .

"In 2012, Bahía Blanca hosted our first National Filba. Thirteen years later, we're back with a new Festival (from July 31 to August 2), which, in addition to featuring literary events and activities, seeks to help the city's public and community libraries that lost their books in the storm," explains the Foundation, which will return this year in collaboration with the Cultural Institute of the Municipality of Bahía Blanca.

The campaign, called "Books for Bahía Blanca," invites people to donate books in good condition to refurbish spaces that aren't just for reading.

Any book? No. "The ones you loved. The ones you haven't forgotten. The ones you've reread many times. The ones you consider essential. The ones you always talk about with other readers. The ones you recommend to your friends. The ones by your favorite authors. Literature, poetry, essays, nonfiction. Fiction books, poetry, or albums for girls and boys . The ones you read to yourself before bed," they list. And they add: "The books that are like a house to live in."

Amalia Sanz is the director of Filba and tells Clarín : "The libraries we are working with lost approximately between 16,000 and 20,000 copies . And although we are going to work in principle to equip the Roberto J. Payró Popular Library, the José Hernández (General Cerri) Library and the Pajarita de Papel Library , we are also very attentive to the quantity of books we are going to receive, because that way we can help someone else ."

The initiative was born after the initial stupor : "There was an initial moment of shock and also of rebuilding. Perhaps it wasn't the best time to start a collection because they were working on restoring the structure and infrastructure of the damaged libraries, from the walls and glass to the shelves. So, we preferred to wait a while, and now, as we're returning with the festival, it became possible to add this support of books."

The Foundation will curate what people offer: "The idea is for them to be used books, but in very good condition and of the quality a library needs . That's why the motto is 'books you'd like to receive,' not books you'd get rid of," he concludes.

The storm's waters devastated the Bahía Blanca libraries to varying degrees , although in three of them , desolation prevailed . At the Roberto J. Payró Public Library, the loss of books, electronic equipment, and furniture was almost total . At the José Hernández Library (General Cerri), much of its material was rendered unusable . And at the Humanities Library of the "Arturo Marasso" National University of the South (UNS), water advanced over the volumes on the lower shelves.

Writer, journalist, editor and teacher, Sonia Budassi was born in Bahía Blanca and considers the connection between her city and books to be unique: "In principle, I would say that it is a very natural relationship and, therefore, I dare say naturalized," she explains to Clarín .

The author of Journalism and The Impossible Border: Israel-Palestine , among other titles, tries out a list of memories in that sense : "The Rivadavia libraries , which is the one in the center and in my childhood there were many families who were members, and also the one at the National College of Bahía Blanca (today Middle School 13), which had a fundamental role because it organized literary and literary workshops . The publishing houses , which were naturalized. The Vox magazine , which later became the publishing house that gave rise to one of the most federal canons of contemporary poetry, the poetry of the nineties and which is still active now. The International Poetry Festival , which already has a very long tradition, the very good bookstores Don Quijote (shortlisted by the FED in 2021), Henry, Lamas Médula, small places that sell home delivery and also hold free and open cultural events... In other words, it's something very alive, something you can feel, " she lists.

In her house in Buenos Aires and surrounded by her own books, Budassi sums it up with a beautiful image: "When I was a girl, it was said that in Bahía Blanca you lift a tile and there is a poet and I would add that you lift a tile and you find a storyteller, but you lift a tile, a rough one, a flowerpot, and you find readers and readers ."

Sonia Budassi says that in Buenos Aires, "sunset sets much earlier than in Bahía, which is further south, and that makes me very nostalgic." And before her cat's impatient gaze, she explains that the Filba team investigated, asked questions, listened, and investigated what was happening in the region before organizing the campaign . "Because often, from the outside, one can have a well-intentioned, but unhelpful, perspective," she notes.

In 2021, Budassi won the first prize from the National Endowment for the Arts in the Literature category for her book of short stories Animales de compañía (Companion Animals) , and tonight, surrounded by notebooks, pens, and programs from the plays she saw at the Teatro Cervantes, she says that Bahía will never be the same: " Cultural institutions continue to be a trench , especially after the devastation we are suffering. What we are seeing seems like an apocalyptic movie."

Sebastián Pérez Parry has a degree in museology and is a librarian at the Patagonian Institute of Social and Human Sciences (IPCSH-CONICET) of the CENPAT in Puerto Madryn. In March, he went to help rescue what remained in good condition. He explained: " There were tons of books to get rid of. I counted more than 20 dumpsters full of books to throw away. What belonged to the university itself, generated by the university itself—the theses, for example, or the university's own publications, which hardly any other university in the country has—that's what we were trying to rescue," he told the Conicet website.

For this reason, in addition to the call to society, the Filba Foundation is currently working with dozens of Argentine and foreign publishing houses .

The president of the El Libro Foundation, Cristian Rainone , had already anticipated some of this at the opening of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair in April: "I want to focus now on five public libraries: those in Bahía Blanca, which were devastated by the tremendous storm known to all. If anything has characterized our sector, it is solidarity, that is why we joined publishers from the Chambers of Books and Publications to deliver the necessary books to repopulate the public libraries of Bahía Blanca. If we talk about libraries, we talk about books, we talk about culture," he said.

The Ministry of Culture, headed by Leonardo Cifelli, also sent a special allocation of funds through the National Commission of Public Libraries (Conabip) . This amount is just under 50 million pesos, earmarked for five public libraries in Bahía Blanca.

"This financial assistance , managed after a thorough damage assessment, aims primarily to support the restoration of the institutions' buildings and assets . In turn, the libraries' institutional integrity was essential for them to access this financial support," the secretariat said in a statement.

The money was allocated to the Roberto J. Payró, Pajarita de Papel, Rosario Sur, Mariano Moreno, and Germán García libraries. "Additionally," the state agency added, "the José Hernández Public Library will receive a certain number of books, and once its status with Conabip is regularized, the corresponding amount will be available for their recovery."

Now it's the people's turn . But it's not about sending just anything, but titles that fulfill their purpose . So they ask that you not donate "Those you wouldn't recommend, current affairs books, the kind that quickly go to the clearance tables; encyclopedias (we love them, but they're not what libraries need); books in poor condition, torn, or detached; and object books, with stickers, coloring books, or license books."

Books for Bahia libraries can be received at the Eterna Cadencia bookstore, located at Honduras 5582, until July 25, between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. "We will bring them to Bahia as part of the upcoming Filba Nacional (from July 31 to August 2)," the Foundation explains. They also invite you: "Join and give a second life to those books stored in your home."