Although it initially seemed “crazy” to Juan Carlos to install their little print shop in an occupied hotel, after several months, he was convinced. The fact that the copy center started working, almost exclusively for the cooperative, was an example of the things that began to function, and better all the time, relieving the fears of Tonarelli senior, who (…)
created a list of prices for the cooperative that was unbeatable, with a very important bonus, which functioned as payment for the physical space that they gave him to bring his things into. And what did I do while we had the graphics workshop? I was the runner, I wrote up work orders, I sold on the street. Of course, when we came here, we started to do that kind of work less. So the print shop became almost entirely the hotel’s print shop, with very few other customers left, and finally, I ended up joining the cooperative and my parents ended in the workshop, printing everything for the BAUEN. So, the BAUEN had its print shop until my old man passed away, but he ended up being one of us. They really came to love my old man a lot around here.
These were symptoms of economic activity that was taking off, of a cooperative that was on the move. And not only in economically. As Lavaca pointed out verifiably, “(…) the hotel Bauen is characterized, fundamentally, by providing solidarity spaces for social organizations that meet there to debate, organize, and make known their practices and needs.” In those first years, the BAUEN became a center of struggle, solidarity, and mobilization. That quality, logically facilitated by its strategic location and its functionality as an establishment especially intended for meetings and social activities (not, of course, of a nature or with the participants that its activities had once had), contributed to the defense of the cooperative becoming a common cause for many people and organizations.