The bookstore and cultural activist (Barcelona, 1965) died this Saturday at age 60, as reported on Sunday the bookstore “was a tireless fighter for Catalan culture. The entire team continues very alive,” said the message. Until a few months ago, Úbeda was in charge of the ONA bookstore on Gran de Gràcia street, open many years before the opening of the most recent establishment in the group, located on Pau Claris Street ,. But for weeks I had closed for health problems.
It has not been until Sunday that it has been known that Úbeda died yesterday, blamed for health problems for some time. He was a known person in the Catalan cultural world from the ONA bookstore, where he started working very young and ended up directing for a decade. The founding establishment, located on the Gran Via, was open from 1962 to 2010, and the father of the deceased, Jordi Úbeda, editor of Barcelona, was one of its founders.
For his outstanding dedication to Catalan literature and language, Úbeda received the Creu de Sant Jordi of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2019, while last year it was the Barcelona City Council that rewarded his role for culture in the city granting him the Premi d’Inor Vila de Gràcia. In recent years, Úbeda dedicated himself body and soul to the ONA library in Gran de Gràcia, which opened in 2013.
The former presidents of the Generalitat and Quim Torra have had words of recognition this Sunday when the death of the bookstore. In his X account, Puigdemont stressed that he was “always at the foot of the canyon” and that he was “always generous with everyone”, “watching over the letters, for books and culture from the best catalanity.”
Torra has also defined it as a “tireless worker for Catalan culture and literature,” and has emphasized that she was “a firm woman, intolerant of mediocrity, generous without limits and patriot.” In addition, the former president added in his condolences message that it was an “honor to grant him the Creu de Sant Jordi.” Also the secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, has written that it was “much more than the reference book of so many”, but also “an unconformist fighter in everything and especially of everything related to culture, to the language and the nation. A patriot of the feet to the head.”
On the other hand, the businessman Tatxo Benet, owner of Ona Llibres, first from the historic Library of Gran Via. He also recalled that his “activist soul” came out in the Gràcia bookstore and has been “life dedicated to doing activism by Catalonia.” Talking with her, the challenge of opening the great Ona Llibres bookstore in Pau Claris, says the businessman. “Thanks to the irreducible character of Montse there is the great project of Una Llibres in Pau Claris 94,” he points out in his farewell text.
