Barrio Books

Tucscon, AZ

Barrio Books come about as a deep love of literature and of the Tucson community. Started in the Spring of 2019, Barrio Books has brought books of Latinx representation to many corners of Tucson. We started as a pop up vendor hauling our used books from event to event. Such as Cyclovia, Second Saturday Downtown, Barrio Centro Fiestas and many other community events. We slowly began taking space with our books at Galeria Mitotera, an Art Gallery in south Tucson, and at Chula’s, a gift shop off of 4th avenue. So many of our books have made it to different part of the United States as well! From California all the way to Maine! Why Books about Latinx representation? Representation in many media forms is so important to people in any community. With Syrena’s background in Education and in literature, we wanted to focus on representation in literature especially in Children’s and Young Adult books. Children are more incline to feel much more comfortable with reading if they can see themselves or people they know in the pages. After a long break during the COVID-19 pandemic, Barrio Books was given the opportunity of opening a store front by partnering with Hotel McCoy. We officially opened our door, January 2nd 2021. As we grow in our space, we grow in our book inventory, adding books by Indigenous Authors, Black Authors, Local authors, LGBTQAI+ and new books.