Enric Navarro is one of the main arteries that crosses the old area of Benimaclet from west to east, a small street but divided into three different names: between Emili Baró and Baró de San Petrillo, takes the name Leonor Jovani and in the final part transforms into Pare Alegre, a small road that makes a 90º foreshortening to avoid the Padre Catalá preschool and primary school and go up towards the north in search of the orchard. Near the large water tank hidden in Enric Navarro lived the important Valencian poet and grammarian Carles Salvador. (important promoter of the orthographic normalization of Catalan in these lands), That's why we found a little street with its name perpendicular to the one in question.. Enric Navarro keeps Benimaclet smelling like a town, with your hardware store, clothing and footwear stores, shoe, delicatessen and butcher shop, a Valencian peña and several Fallas camps, grocery store, jewelry… and market on Fridays! Bookstores, t-shirts, music bands and cocktails on a street that makes a neighborhood like few others in Valencia! Let's take a walk!
MUSICAL INSTRUCTIONAL CENTER
— Baron of Sant Petrillo, 14
Although officially the historic Musical Society of the old town of Benimaclet belongs to Barón de San Petrillo, has entry by Enric Navarro, so we couldn't resist talking about her. “The Musical” or “The CIM"is the house of a choir, an orchestra, a round, a youth band, una big band, the Batucada Rembombori and the flagship, the Symphonic Band, founded in 1910. Just a year later it was split due to internal disagreements.: a part joined the Instructional and Charitable Casino (The Hand) and the other created the Instructional and Musical Society (The Hoof), but two decades later they merged again with the name of Centro Instructivo Musical after an act of reunification known as “the Festa de l’Abraç” and set the casino inaugurated in 1929. Today the CIM functions as a kind of House of Culture for the neighborhood and houses an instrumental music school upstairs that teaches regular classes all year round and a “musical bar” on the ground floor that was soundproofed in August of the year. past to improve the acoustics and where young people meet with grayer members playing dominoes or cards. It has also hosted large dinners and weddings, but day to day is a concert by the Belgian string quartet Zerkalo Quartet or by Cesc Freixas, Cinema screening in Valencia, a carnival party with a costume contest, the Valencian Book and Disc Exhibition, a neighborhood assembly or activities to celebrate Saint Cecilia. The Musical is a generator of social fabric and marks the heartbeat of the old town of Benimaclet.
THE TRACA LIBRES
— Enrique Navarro, 15
The name and typography of the historic bookstore The Traca refers to an essential magazine in the history of Valencian journalism due to its extraordinary influence on public opinion and for being, for a time, the one with the most circulation in Spain.. It was one of the few publications that dared to caricature the figure of Franco, and he paid dearly for it, your editor, Vicente Miguel Prisoner, He was shot in June 1940 y The Traca ended up annihilated. Both, the magazine and the bookstore, They are history of the anti-Franco resistance because in the back room of the bookstore, inaugurated in 1974, A few clandestine meetings were held during the last years of the Regime. Today the bookstore is distinguished by an extensive catalog in Valencian, language that he claimed when very few made them – the Librería 3 i 4 and little more–, and for his books for children and young people. They have survived so many years with hard work and thanks to the help of the neighborhood, which has five schools to which it sells textbooks, many university students looking for recommended readings and some professors who drop by. A bookstore with a lot of history.
ROCK ISLAND
— Enrique Navarro, 8
Two years ago Loca Bohemia became Rock Island, a perfectly soundproofed cocktail bar with very acceptable acoustics where you can listen to live music several afternoons a week: on fridays there are jam of jazz and on Saturdays African music. Upon entering, large hand painted music icons on the wall (Kiss, Jim Morrison, David Bowie...) They take us to the small space reserved for live music, just before the billiards at the back of the room. Billiards championships are organized sporadically and, as a curiosity, sponsor a soccer team.
THE RED. BOOKS FOR WOMEN
— Enrique Navarro, 26
The Red, “La Rubia” in Valencian, refers to the best-known story by the scathing Dorothy Parker, A stunning blonde (1929) and it is the only bookstore in the Valencian Community dedicated exclusively to women's literature. Two years ago Alodia Clemente founded La Rossa, a bookstore specializing in books written by women that is also a cozy reading room and a meeting place where workshops are organized, reading clubs and book presentations. Last year, For example, hosted the cycle Mediterranean Women Writers in La Rossa, organized by the Mediterranean Arc Women Writers Platform, an association created with the aim of making women writers visible in all genres and in all media, or the presentation of the latest issue of the Dangerous bitches fanzine, born out of the urgent need to show the world what women artists are capable of doing. Besides, you can find other articles like Feminisms reunited, the feminist trivia created by the podcast Fuchsia Blood.
GOAT
— Enrique Navarro, 21B
Arrival of Alacant, Goatxa is a family business that since 2006 designs and manufactures t-shirts with all kinds of techniques: textile screen printing (traditional stamping system), printing vinyl (plastic finish), digital printing, transfer… They offer you more than 600 own designs that are around €15 (depends on the number of t-shirts), but they can also customize to the consumer's taste. And not just the t-shirt, also mugs, plates, wallets, coasters and baby bodysuits with essential messages: “What if I shit?”, what if I don't shit, “get into your problems”.
NISHINKAN DOJO
— Enrique Navarro, 34
In operation since 2009, Nishinkan Dojo is an association and dojo specialized in oriental culture and Aikido, a very technical Japanese martial art (controls, dislocations, projections…) that teaches us to use our body to reverse the opponent's force against him. Seek intelligent and non-violent resolution of the conflict. The location is open six days a week with separate training plans for new and advanced students, and activities include Aikido for children and weapons training.
CAPRA RECORDS
— Enrique Navarro, 30
This little vinyl store reggae y dub, new and second hand, It is also a record label
and a record distributor. Its managers are an Italian and a Pole, Dennis Capra and Michu Krygiel, who opened the physical store and online just a few months ago, but they have been since 2012 editing vinyl. On Capra Records, in addition to buying and selling records, you can click them to listen to them right there or bring them from home, because more than a store, They wanted to create a meeting space for lovers of the genre. They also have clothing and accessories for sale., all handmade and made by friends from the neighborhood (wallets, bragapuchas, bracelet…) and they do only vinyl sessions in streaming from their Facebook page with guest DJs.
THE JOYFUL CONCHITA
— Holy Spirit, 8
La Alegre Conchita is an educational and sexological project that since 2008 work to break the mold
of the dominant heteronormative culture, from a small branch of Enric Navarro street. Attending to diversity and breaking prejudices without judging anyone are the fundamental axes on which Elena and Raquel, sexologists and social educators, They built this beautiful erotic store for women that moves away from the traditional sexshop. Here we can buy, For example, a menstrual cup. Arranged with exquisite taste you have all kinds of erotic products, toys and cosmetics, specialized books, games, personalized movies and gift kits. They dedicate Fridays to giving talks (Orgasms and company) and workshops (erotic creativity), they organize tuppersex (also for couples), and also offer private sexological advice.
THE CAMP. OUR LIFE
— Enrique Navarro, 18
This is a special fruit and vegetable store. The owners are farmers who have been in Benimaclet for a year., straight from the garden, products that do not go through intermediaries (therefore, cheaper) and that have not received post-harvest treatments. Do you sell, depending on season, watermelon, watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, green pepper, garrophone, orange, khaki, artichoke… and what they don't have, They buy it from other farmers in the area to sell in a spacious and very pleasant place. Besides, You can also buy oil from the Sierra de Espadán, café, eggs from the upper Turia, Rafelbunyol rice, water from La Font de la Figuera and bread brought every morning from a Massamagrell oven made with sourdough, also green fiber (100% spinach), ideal for ending constipation.
COFFEE LONDON
— Enrique Navarro, 8
From 2010 runs Café London serving all types of beers at its bar, cocktails and gins, since before the gin and tonic fad swept through. They were pioneers of the city in that field, having more than seventy types of gins, and today there are not so many, but you can taste a large number of them every Wednesday in their Ginclub with discounts on Premium Gins. Tuesdays are Cocktail Day and you can go to the other side of the bar to prepare your cocktail to taste for €5 and, every other day, You have thirty beers to choose from and some 25 high quality whiskeys. This is the characteristic that distinguishes Café London, the high quality of all its products and the variety. Better to drink little and good. Besides, They schedule sporadic cultural activities such as the Absurd Debate, organized by the girls of Bebiendo a Morro once a month. In it there is a debate for an hour and a half on a stupid topic., nothing to do with politics, the economy or the world of work.
TELLING LIES
— Leonor Jovani, 12
This nice place at the end of the street (already under the name of Leonor Jovani) it was a car wash, nightclub, revival cinema (It was called “Ideal” although it was popularly known as “Meló”) and clothing store. From 2003 It's To Tell Lies, hoy, a cultural association in which dance classes – also for children – and Pilates are taught, and that shelters the dance company La Coja Dance. Some of its dancers are also dance teachers in the association, which also offers its premises for other emerging companies that do not have their own space to rehearse..
