Búho Bookstore Coming to Brownsville, Tex.

Gilbert Hernandez outside Búho's new home.

Búho bookstore, located in the historic Calderoni Building at 1140 E. Washington St. in Brownsville, Tex., will open later this year. Owner Gilbert Hernandez launched Búho last spring as a pop-up operation, but his long-term vision was to find a permanent home for a bookstore and café. Búho is Spanish for owl, and he noted that owls are "symbols of wisdom, they are often associated with literature, libraries and bookstores."

Hernandez held some test runs recently at his bookstore "to see what the public's response would be and dozens of people showed up to see what his store had to offer," the Brownsville Herald reported. "At one of the test runs he had at least 60 people inside. He even ran out of paper bags for the books that customers bought. More bags are on the way."

On the shop's Facebook page, Hernandez wrote: "The Herald caught wind of us too! I appreciate that even though our Grand Opening is still months away, the press is excited about our project and y'all's support. As mentioned in the article, in between official Test Runs, anyone can enter the store if I'm working on things inside, or you can message me to find out if I'll be there. In the near future, Búho will have a team to staff the store in order to serve Brownsville Readers at all times."

The idea for the bookstore came to him after leaving Brownsville to attend college in Massachusetts, then returning home and visiting civic organizations in the community. "It was through these visits with organization members that he learned there was something many in Brownsville yearned for but was missing: a traditional bookstore," the Herald noted. 

"I did hear this complaint over and over again 'why don't we have a bookstore. I have to drive to McAllen, I have to drive to the Island to get my books,' " Hernandez said. "If you approach a project with passion, the more you do it, the more you get people on board with your mission, the likely is for you to create your own luck, the more doors you open."

Búho's grand opening is months away and Hernandez plans to do additional test runs before then "to satisfy the thirst. Before Búho we lived in a book desert, this is a little oasis. This is a little glass of water in the desert. Soon it will be a watering hole. This gives Brownsville a little taste of the bookstore experience.... I feel like it's something that must be done.... I feel like I have unlocked a new emotion. This whole project exists because of love for Brownsville.... This is my way of giving back that love that in a way that I feel adds value to the community."

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