Luis and Isabel Cobos's latest venture proves to be exactly what Dallas-based Latinos were waiting for. Last January, the husband-and-wife business partners opened Abrapalabra Librería, a venture that evolved from their existing natural health food stores that also sold New Age books. The couple decided to open a bookstore when an increasing number of their customers began asking for different types of books.

The bookstore started as an e-commerce website (www.libreriadehispanos.com). "Our agenda was to offer a large variety of Spanish-language titles to a big Latino audience," says Luis. The majority of the books sold at Abrapalabra are in Spanish. Fifty percent of those titles are available on the store's website, which attracts Latino readers from all over the United States. "At book fairs, we always direct customers to the website," says Luis. "Some customers use it as a guide to search for books, then they come to the bookstore with the security that they are going to find what they are looking for."

Currently the only Spanish-language bookstore in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Abrapalabra carries books on cooking, health, education, history, family, religion, philosophy, art, and politics. Its most popular category is self-help. "People are always looking for books to motivate them," says Isabel. The bookstore's self-help best sellers include Og Mandino's El vendedor más grande del mundo (The Greatest Salesman in the World, Editorial Diana, 1997); El Alquimista (The Alchemist, Rayo, 2002) by Paulo Coelho; as well as books by Carlos Cuahtémoc Sánchez, Dra. Isabel, Jorge Ramos, and María Antonieta Collins. Second most popular are children's books. "Parents want their kids to learn and not forget their native language," says Isabel. "As a parent myself, I read to and encourage my children to read books in Spanish."

Luis and Isabel make sure their bookstore is constantly stocked with the latest and most popular titles. They search Mexico and major U.S. cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles for the best books for their store. "We're excited about carrying the Spanish translation of Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiography, Living History (Historia viva, Planeta, 2003)," says Isabel. "Gabriel García Márquez's autobiography Vivir para contarla (Living to Tell the Tale, Knopf, 2002) continues to be a hit in the store."

The majority of their customers may be Latino, but they also get a fair number of non-Spanish-speaking customers. "We sell a lot of Spanish dictionaries to non-Spanish-speaking customers at book fairs," says Isabel. "They also buy children's books in Spanish to teach their kids the language."

In the works for the store are Saturday story times for children and an open house every few months. The Cobos's also hope to open another bookstore in Fort. "We want to contribute to our culture and community with this bookstore," says Isabel.