Criticas Magazine

Ruben Martínez's Indie Bookstore Expands its Mission to Promote Reading


The independent bookstore Librería Martínez opened its second branch in September in Lynwood, CA, a town where old-time residents say they haven't seen a bookstore in more than 50 years. Opened by Rueben Martínez, Críticas's 2002 Spanish-language Advocate of the Year, the new store has found a temporary home within the Plaza México, a Mexican-themed shopping center that has already become a popular attraction.

In February, the store will move into its 9,000-square-foot permanent space in the shopping center, where it will offer customers an expanded collection of both English and Spanish books in all categories and for all ages.

Plaza México's innovative mix of retail, cultural activities, and services attracts visitors from East Los Angeles, Pasadena, Long Beach, and surrounding areas. The Mexican-styled architecture that surrounds the plazas and alleys creates an ambience of leisure and calm.
"It's about getting people to read and go on to a higher education," the lifelong education advocate and community activist Martínez tells Críticas.

Just like the store's Santa Ana predecessor, this branch will be more than books and business. A weekly hora de cuentos ("story hour"), a café, and a 200-seat amphitheater are just some of what promises to attract customers of all ages. The amphitheater will serve for author readings and bookstore lectures, and will also be available for school plays and live performances. Author Rubén Martínez (Crossing Over), who happens to share a name with the store's owner, and the performance group Culture Clash are scheduled to perform in this singular space in a February opening celebration dedicated to Southern California's teachers and professors.

Librería Martínez's doors will open one week later in a second celebration that will launch a month of festivities and weekly author readings. Martínez hopes this month of celebrations will speak to distant community members who no longer remember the value of books as well as to current bookstore customers. Furthermore, a brightly lit sign on highway 105, which carries more than 260,000 vehicles a day and runs adjacent to Plaza México, advertises the store's newest location.

"This is another dream come true," says Martínez, who first dreamed of opening the Santa Ana bookstore while working as a barber. "We are the only bookstore in Lynwood. Now my dream is a bookstore that's open 24 hours. They have 24-hour laundromats, right? Why not bookstores?"

Criticas Magazine

3rd Annual Críticas Awards for Outstanding Service
Herrera: Community Advocate of the Year

Luis Herrera substantially surpassed his duties as library director this year and brought Cesar E. Chavez’ visions to life in the streets and schools of Pasadena. Under Herrera’s advocacy the Pasadena Public Library organized the first annual Cesar E. Chavez Day in this city of over 133’000, where more than one third Latino.

Herrera wouldn’t give up on plans to honor Chavez in some form even when city and union issues put an end to a first attempt to turn March 31, Chavez’ birth-date, into a city-wide holiday. Instead, Herrera and other library employees, joined heads and developed an alternate plan.

“We came up with the idea – what would Cesar Chavez really want?,” says Herrera. “He would want engagement, interaction, involvement in the community.”

And so, backed by various community associations and the city itself, Pasadena Public Library organized a day in which employees would give back to their communities, rather than do regular work. Bringing together people of all ages, classes, and races, Pasadena Public Library invited city employees to represent themselves and their jobs in one of two projects - either within neighborhood schools or on city streets.

In numerous schools throughout the city, 30 city employees - representing careers ranging from city attorneys, to planners, to librarians, to financial analysts, and more - helped introduce the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez to responsive middle and high school students. They also had the opportunity to bring to life, in person, city jobs that may otherwise have held little interest for 13 to 18 year-olds. To top it all off the library prepared career services hand-outs for those students with potential interest in pursuing city jobs.

In another city sector, Lincoln Corridor, a neighborhood with heavy minority representation and over 30 percent Latino, city employees joined in teams with public workers to gather garbage, paint walls and help re-construct city streets. 50 volunteers from all over the racial map met early that morning coffee and doughnuts before being escorted by library representative to their respective work sites. Once there, work crews greeted them with paint brushes and safety vests, and for the next two-and-a-half hours attorneys and painters, financial analysts and garbage collectors, all formed near homogenous team.

“It was really nice to see the city come together like that,” says Herrera. “We heard nothing in the community but praise.”

Bringing the project back to its source, volunteers and workers joined for lunch at the library where Herrera further announced the library’s establishment of a Cesar Chavez legacy collection to contain titles on labor, justice, and the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez himself.

This unique collection already contains 40 titles such as Richard Castillo’s César Chávez: a triumph of spirit and Susan Ferriss’ The fight in the fields : Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers movement. As funding increases the collection will continue to grow and Pasadena Public Library thus promises to hold a spectacular Chavez collection of national importance before long.

Críticas congratulates Herrera on turning a career into a calling and bringing the dreams of Cesar E. Chavez into the community. We look forward to watching the Cesar Chavez legacy collection at Pasadena Public Library continue to grow.