Ana and Domingo, the fishmongers from position number 10, have posed for the pencils of Tomás Alonso, Yaiza Carretero, and Zoe Micaela Mitma. Xavier … Serrada, from Aceitunas Ávila (position 2), smiled for the portrait that Marcos Rodríguez dedicated to him. Marta Sánchez has been in charge of finding the expression on the face of Tomás, from the El Faro fishmonger. Edith Silvares and Adela Pérez have given their gaze to Beatriz, from La Hacienda del Pan. And so, the merchants and shopkeepers of the La Rondilla municipal market have become the protagonists of an exhibition of caricatures made by the students of the Art School.
The result can be visited during these days in the renovated facilities of the neighborhood market, which are “little by little” recovering their rhythm, after they came back to life at the end of September after three years of construction and fallow.
“All campaigns that serve to promote the market are well received,” explains Javier Serrada, president of the industrialists of a place that still suffers from an excess of vacant positions. “Now we are open seven out of 16. People are getting used to coming to the market again, but we need to fill the empty stalls,” says Javier, who points out two fundamental problems for more merchants to settle here. «The first is bureaucracy. The procedures are very slow. For everything. For example, it has taken us a long time to have the loading and unloading signs painted, we still do not have bins and only a month ago they installed the benches for us,” explains the president of the merchants.
Two customers, in one of the stalls at the La Rondilla municipal market.
Rodrigo Jimenez
But he also emphasizes that “there is a problem of lack of experienced labor.” “It is very difficult to find self-employed people willing to start a business,” adds Tomás Casero, from the El Faro fishmonger. «Businesses work, but you have to be brave. There is no generational change. We notice it in the fishmongers because when one closes, there is no one willing to continue with the business,” says Tomás, who trusts that, in the coming weeks, the offer of the La Rondilla market will be enriched with the arrival of more merchants who offer products now with little or little presence in the square, such as fruit shops or delicatessens. These days a cafeteria is also opening there, led by Aleida Camacho. And from the City Council they remember that the offer can be completed with florists, hairdressers, drugstores, haberdasheries…
«We need to give the market more promotion, so that the neighbors know that, after three years closed, we have returned. In this time [los comerciantes han tenido que alquilar locales en el barrio como alternativa] We have seen how some of the regular clients have not been able to return (because they have died, they are in nursing homes…). But we do notice that more young people are coming. And that is important,” says Ana Isabel Martín Maesto, from the V fishmonger in Palma. “Every start-up is complicated, but we are going little by little,” says Beatriz López while she ships loaves of bread.
This campaign promoted by the City Council in collaboration with the School of Art (and under the coordination of teachers Mónica Sastre and Sandra León) aims to “promote local commerce”, comments from the Consistory. “It is a great opportunity for young people to get to know the municipal markets as a place for shopping and as a space for activities and business entrepreneurship,” says Víctor Martín, Councilor for Commerce, Markets and Consumption.
