El Barrio de las Letras

Historia. Comercio. Ocio

Abstract

Mariano Domínguez Alcocer, El Barrio de las Letras. Historia. Comercio. Ocio, Madrid, Turpin Editores, 2015, 128 pp., ISBN 978-84-94418419. The book is essentially a photographic compendium—117 color photographs and a map—that tours the monuments, historic and modern buildings, and commercial and leisure establishments of Madrid's Barrio de las Letras, accompanied by introductory texts and explanatory captions. The reviewer highlights the author's personal and unconstrained gaze: a former bookseller turned street photographer who states that his image selection was free of economic influence and shaped by the perspective of a frequent visitor. The book's launch at the Sociedad Cervantina also gave art historian Juan Carrete Parrondo the opportunity to offer an erudite history of the neighborhood, from its origins as the Barrio de San Juan to present-day challenges such as mass tourism and the lack of cultural facilities.