Indie bookstores The Lit. Bar, Mil Mundos, and Word Up Community Bookshop recently co-hosted a virtual conversation featuring authors Angie Cruz (Dominicana), Jaquira Diaz (Ordinary Girls), Carolina de Robertis (Cantoras), Lilliam Rivera (Goldie Vance), Melissa Rivero (The Affairs of the Falcons), and Natalia Sylvester (Running), moderated by book blogger extraordinaire @lupita.reads that left us feeling energized and inspired! Attendees simply had to online order one or more books from a list of 12 new releases by Latinx authors at one of the three participating bookstores, to receive a link for the event, which took place on April 16, 2020.
All in all, it was a delightful example of how our communities can come together in celebration and support of authors, indie bookstores, and readers in ways that benefit everyone. Afterwards, we were lucky enough to chat with author Angie Cruz, and hear more about how El Gran Combo came about, and learn how others might replicate it.
What sparked the idea for this?
For months now, Jaquira Díaz, Carolina de Robertis and I had been working together to think about how we can galvanize community among Latinx writers to support bookstores that serve our communities. It was both shocking and painful to take walks on Broadway and see the long stretches of closed stores block after block. I feared and still fear that many of these businesses will never open again. So I reached out to Veronica Liu at Word Up Community Bookstore and suggested the virtual fiesta event that entailed three bookstores, five authors and twelve participating books, hoping the event would drive online book sales to those stores.
What resources did you all need to pull it off?
I think the most significant resources were trust, generosity and openness. We are in a time where collaboration and sharing resources is crucial for all our survival—mind, body, and spirit. The participating writers were so game to amplify the event and to have bookstagrammer @lupitareads moderate and energize the conversation with her devoted following of readers helped to make the event a success. Logistically, Veronica Liu (founder of Word Up), supported and strategized with the other bookstores, Mil Mundos and The Lit Bar to do all the promotional materials and be online book selling ready.
What was most surprising to you about the event? Most joyful? What was your biggest takeaway from El Gran Combo?
Jaquira, Carolina and I have been planning our El Gran Combo tour for a long while now. In fact we were set to visit five cities in June to promote our paperbacks. This event was a way to harness all that energy and planning and do some good with it. We named our tour after a band for a reason. We wanted it to be joyful and as much as possible have music and dancing involved. We called the event a virtual fiesta, because we so need a party right now, and the 155 people who showed up were eager for the conversation. Many who attended purchased multiple books and all three bookstores broke record sales for that day. I was told that there was an upswing in sales after. All the writers involved are activists in their communities, we write books and we care about social justice. This is true about Lupita and the booksellers as well. This is key. The chat room's excitement from those attending was so joyful. But for sure most surprising was Carolina breaking out into song. My biggest takeaway is that we are in this together so we might as well work together to bring the joy but also help each other survive this.
During the event, you mentioned that you are only interested in moving into spaces where the “burner is hot” and moving away from people who don’t want to engage in the work. Can you talk more about your journey with that idea? What is sparking the most fire for you right now?
Ha! I said that?! I believe the context was me thinking about all the rejections my work has received throughout my career. It was demoralizing and made me wonder if there were other things I should be dedicating myself to. But what I keep learning in this business, and life in general, is that if there is inspiration, we must keep doing the work. And if we lose inspiration we must move toward those spaces that inspire us so we can then have the fire to do the work. Not keep banging our heads on the slammed doors and walls that have never truly created a space for us as Latinx writers. Find the spaces where you can cultivate that love for what you are doing. Sometimes you can find that in a learning space, like a workshop. We are fortunate now because there are so many writing workshops that mentor writers of color. Our main job is to get better at telling it and keeping that fire in the belly alive. The publishing machine is a business. Many publishing houses were wrong when they projected that Dominicana did not have a market. But the novel has found its readership. What kept me at it amidst all those rejections was my nurturing community who remind me that my work mattered.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Please encourage your readers to make their online book purchases from Word up, Mil Mundos and The Lit. Bar. And to continue to support these Latinx writers!
