You no longer have to drive to McAllen to buy books!
Let me introduce you to Búho (“BOO-oh”), Brownsville’s upcoming book café.
This needed to be done. I made a sad discovery while pulling an all-nighter in January and flipping through Google Maps and Wikipedia’s “List of United States Cities by Population”:
As of writing this, Brownsville is the 2nd largest city in Texas and the 7th largest in the United States WITHOUT a traditional bookshop*
While we have a Christian bookstore in North Brownsville that serves the faithful, and UTRGV’s bookstore that serves textbooks & supplies to our college students, we currently don’t have a bookshop that serves and caters to the general public.
After the Waldenbooks in the Sunrise Mall left us 10 years ago, I’ve heard more “excuses” than solutions as to why we don’t have a bookstore here:
- “Brownsville’s uneducated” - “Brownsville’s too poor to afford books” - “Brownsville doesn’t care about literature”, etc.
To all that cynicism, I call bullshit! My time here after college has taught me that Brownsville has plenty of people who read like hell, read casually, and we’ve got lots of kids who do so, too. Not to mention that many of our neighbors are interested in picking up the reading habit if given the right book, author, or genre. Whether the people of Brownsville like exciting mystery thrillers, business books, classic novels, inspiring biographies, a spicy romance, spiritual self-help, or a DIY for that very specific hobby…
There are curious souls among us, and they must be served!
Since apparently it’s “too risky” to open a bookstore down here, I’m just gonna go ahead and do it. Búho will be starting off with clean, secondhand books at first-rate prices so anyone can enjoy a good read without breaking the bank. We’ll expand into being a new book vendor eventually, but we have to build enough capital first to become the indie book café that Brownsville deserves.
Make sure to visit Búho’s booth this Sunday, March 13 at our debut/market study at the Amigoland Event Center’s March Pop-Up Event. There you’ll find inexpensive books of all genres, but mostly children’s fiction, business/self-help, and thrillers & romances.
I will pay myself $0 until we become a brick-and-mortar.
All profits and proceeds will be reinvested towards Búho’s future location in Downtown Brownsville.
PS: Shoutout to my talented sister Daniela for designing what may just be the best goddamn logo in all Brownsville!
*PPS: In case you’re wondering, the 6 larger cities in the country without a bookstore are:
- North Las Vegas, NV, #84th largest
- Glendale, CA, #91
- Hialeah, FL, #101
- Moreno Valley, CA, #109
- Oxnard CA, #117
- Grand Prairie, TX #128
- Brownsville, #139