Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

The plight of Librería Martínez
June 5, 2008

If you're one of the book people headed for the American Library Association conference later this month, you must be thrilled to be going to Anaheim.  That means you can visit a truly amazing bookstore, next door in Santa Ana, that's run by MacArthur "genius grant" winner and Críticas Editorial Advisory Board member Ruében Martínez.

It's Librería Martínez, and it is in trouble.  (In case you don't see the link, it's the easy-to-remember
http://www.latinobooks.com/

A truer and more inspirational friend of reading, of books in Spanish, of literacy, you're not going to meet. You may have even seen him on TV, on Univision's “El Club de Libritos.”

But the Los Angeles Times reported last month that

...Libreria Martinez, Santa Ana's nationally honored Latino-themed bookstore, is now threatened. After all, how many booksellers win a MacArthur Foundation genius grant? (Though Rueben Martinez was forced to use some of that $500,000 to pay his store's bills.) For that matter, how odd is it that the landlord forcing the store to move is a charter school for the arts with a well-regarded creative writing program?

Not that the school, which needs more classroom space, is the main culprit here. Even though Libreria Martinez sells Spanish-language materials that aren't common in the big chains, sales have been slipping badly. The Internet makes almost all things available.

Santa Ana is ordering its libraries to buy more of their books from the store, and customers who have heard about its plight are showing up to shop. As the loss of Dutton's shows, though, a moment in the limelight isn't enough to save a cultural institution. Martinez has been a longtime contributor to his local community, as well as to Latinos and literature generally. Now he's in the position of needing long-term support rather than spreading it around. Awkward as that might be for him, the alternative isn't an ending we like to contemplate.

So if you are on your way to Anaheim, why not stop in, say hello, and buy some books?  Need a map?  Here it is.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on June 5, 2008 | Comments (0)