Barrio Books, which has been located inside Hotel McCoy in Tucson, Ariz., since opening in 2021, is moving to new and larger space at West 33rd St. and South 10th Ave. in South Tucson, the Arizona Daily Star reported. The shop's last day in its current location is September 24.
"The reason that we're moving is because our vision was to create Barrio Books as well as a cultural center," said owner Syrena Arevalo. "With the new move, we'll have a lot more space to hold author readings, family reads and things like that. And we'll have workshops, classes, all kinds of great stuff."
She hopes to open the new location by November, but that date could be pushed back as far as January, depending on how the renovations go. The Daily Star noted that some of the updates "include new bookshelves, plus seating and stage areas for author readings and small concerts. The new space is roughly 10 times bigger than the current space at Hotel McCoy."
"We'll have space for any kind of, like, musical rehearsals, too. If a mariachi group needs a space to practice, they're more than welcome to practice there," Arevalo said. "Anything that the community might need."
Observing that the move to South Tucson is meant to help alleviate the area's "literary desert," she added: "There's not a lot of books. There are no bookstores and there's also one very small public library. So that's kind of the reason why we wanted to stay either in the south side or in South Tucson, somewhere where there's not a lot of places people are able to get books or find representation of themselves."
Although she is "nervous, excited, and fearful" regarding the move, Arevalo said she has "complete faith in the community that this is something that they want and what they need.... This is your community bookstore. It's a reflection of our community and our community is so diverse. And there's a lot of stories that need to be shown. And I think this is perfect for the Latino community and also the BIPOC community."