In this 16th Edition of our literary gatherings on Human Rights, Amnesty International's Black Tuesdays, We are going to put our magnifying glass on the violation that poverty and inequality entail in the aspiration towards a dignified and more just life for “all” people. To do this, we encourage you to know and analyze this catalog of books that lead us to reflect on poverty and inequality and that will be the protagonists of this edition of the gatherings and that you can get at the “Cosecha Roja” bookstore at the Sporting Club de Russafa in Valencia..
3 March 2026: “ADMINISTRATIVE SILENCE” BY SARA MESA
The work contains a story and a chronicle. The author, Sara Mesa, she is a writer and journalist, something that is especially detected in “Administrative Silence”. It tells the painful adventure of Beatriz who, in his attempt to obtain a minimum financial benefit for Carmen, a sick and homeless woman, discovers a complex bureaucratic labyrinth impossible to manage for a person without a home and without material resources (telephone, Internet access). Beatriz describes the obstacles that the Administration places for the most disadvantaged to obtain assistance benefits such as the IMV (minimum vital income). The journalistic chronicle that is intertwined with the story, contains data provided by institutional and NGO reports, that corroborate that the process is Kafkaesque, for convoluted, slow and ineffective. Especially for the homeless, the most vulnerable. Based on the story that the author lives with Carmen, detects the social reality of the rejection of the poor. To aporophobia, that Adela Cortina coined, It manifests itself in ruthless criticism that goes so far as to describe the poor as lazy or taking advantage of the system..
