The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Tex., is opening a new bookstore October 1 that "will bind Latino literature with community," MYSA reported. The 3,000-square-foot shop, located in the former Progreso Pharmacy building at 1300 Guadalupe Street, will feature "literature written by Texas Latino authors focusing on Mexican-American studies and Chicano scholars and icons," as well as children's titles.
GCAC executive director Cristina Balli said the store will quench the book desert that has plagued the area for generations: "It's economics. The 78207 zip code is one of the poorest zip codes in San Antonio, with a long history of segregation, and economic segregation, that has shaped the forces to be what they are now. The area is underserved in all aspects--food, transportation, infrastructure--not too long ago, there was a big flooding zone. Historically, there's been a lot of neglect of the area. That's the environment that we've been operating in."
The bookstore is funded with the $839,000 GCAC received as part of the 2012 city bond to renovate the building and add a community art gallery and gift shop. Balli said she added the bookstore concept when she joined in 2016.
Tony Diaz is literary curator of the bookstore, and his responsibilities include "picking the books and developing programming to bridge the city's literary ecosystem, involving fellow stores, the San Antonio Public Library and schools," MYSA noted. Balli said Diaz has an extensive history in literary arts, working with authors, retail and a history in activism through his Librotraficante movement, which tackles censorship in Arizona. "There's nobody better in the state to do this," she added.
Diaz noted that his plans do not fall in line with a corporate agenda: "If we follow those rules, we wouldn't even open a bookstore. Corporate English sentences our communities to investors. So we're curating books based on community cultural capital, which is the legacy of the cultural center.... We have to work together to create a whole generation of family libraries. When we do that, we all win. On that note, this is also built on the legacy of San Antonio, but it's going to be a cornerstone for every city. This is not just going to be a center for San Antonio, this is where we'll be showcasing writers from around the state."