The crowd in Anaheim’s untold story was ready to start an open mic night last week, but there was no way to start on time.
Whenever owner Lisette Barrios Grassian tried to get closer to the podium, someone pulled her away for a hug. congratulations. Recommendations. thank you.
The bookstore opened in the industrial portion of the city last year, so when 911 dispatchers called for a medical emergency, 911 dispatchers couldn’t find it. We were able to focus on Bipoc’s books and gain loyal support to allow activists to meet there without buying anything, but the place wasn’t working.
She was then placed within walking distance of the house if it would be better to be placed in a strip mall near downtown, within walking distance of the house. The untold story resumed a few weeks ago, and this was the first open mic night at a new spot.
“Oh my God, there will be a place of difference,” Barrios Grasian told me on July 25th as people continue to submit.
Among the clients she spoke to that day: Toby, from Florida. Nick of Kentucky lives in Utah. A group of teenage girls in town for a water polo tournament. Ukraine’s Anton Divenko said she was in Orange County to meet friends and would visit bookstores around the world.
“This is really good,” Divenko said. “If I were a local, I would come here every week.”
Barrios Grassian finally reached the podium. She was 20 minutes late. No one cared.
“Thanks to Muchachos!” the 52-year-old said in a loud, warm tone, hinting at Gilbert Hey’s work as a history teacher in Anaheim. “New place in Bienvenidos To The Untold Story, Chapter 2! Tonight’s work is to support, applause and give a lot of love.”
Lizitette Barrios Gracián, owner of The Untold Story Bookstore, is also a history teacher at Gilbert High School in Anaheim.
(Allen J. Scheven/Los Angeles Times)
Over the next two hours, the audience snapped their fingers, clapped, and got approval or nodded as the speaker poured proverbs in English, Spanish and Nahuatl. Local political blogger Vern Nelson tickled the Mexican children’s song “El Ratón Vaquero” on an electric keyboard as adults and teens sang and applauded. Every time someone went up to perform, Barrios Grassian sat in his seat.
“The greatest success of this bookstore,” she said at the closing session. She flashes her bright, bright smile like her gunmetal gray hair, “I’m bringing you all together.”
The night was officially over, but no one left. They wanted to rejoice in that moment.
Vivian Lee, who organizes board game gatherings in bookstores through her role as community engagement coordinator for Orange County Asia and Pacific Island Community Alliance, said finding a “welcome space” is difficult in her hometown city.
“People like Liz are so incredible,” Lee, 30. “She’s a game where anything helps the community.”
Paola Gutierrez teaches monthly bilingual poetry classes at The Untold Story. “When I first asked if I could sell my book, she said “yes,” not just “we’ll promote you and help,” the 47-year-old said. “Why can’t you say I’m free for what you need?”
She pointed at the huge couch and laughed. “Does Liz need me to move this whim? Let’s do that!”
Center Barrios Grassian introduces the poet at last week’s bookstore open mic night.
(Allen J. Scheven/Los Angeles Times)
The next day we visited Barrios Grassian, where things were chillers. The Untold Story is designed by Bohemian Latinx. All the equipment and artwork are donated, including a bookshelves, a giant mirror, a bust of the Egyptian goddess ISIS, and a replica of the Titanic above the used fiction section. The insulation peers through the saggy ceiling tiles. The stand next to the gift section offers free toiletries and canned and dried foods.
“We’re having a difficult time,” Barrios Gracien said as Argentine Rock God’s Soda Stereo played lightly from the speakers. “I can’t give much, but I can give.”
How did she think the open mic night went?
“This is the first time I’ve had a very successful job,” she replied. “When you move, you never know if people will follow you.”
A customer came in.
“Hello, welcome!” cried Barrios Grassian, screaming over and over she would do it during our chat. “Don’t be embarrassed, you don’t need to buy it!”
Born in Guadalajara, Barrios Gracián came to Anaheim with his parents without a paper in the 1980s, and eventually legalized through a pardon in 1986. In a bookworm since her youth, she found “safe spaces” as teenagers and young adults and the bilingual Librería Martínez of Santa Ana in long-established bookstores such as Anaheim’s book Baron (“I loved how confused it was”).
When the latter was closed in 2016, Barrios Grassian vowed to open the version when her daughter was older. In 2021, she launched a website and an untold storyline as a pop-up, and ultimately aimed to open a storefront in her hometown.
“Anaheim is nothing more than a brewery,” she said. “It’s my teacher. There’s nothing cultural about our youth. They have to go to Santa Ana to find it. [Anaheim] Get crazy about gentrification. ”
Rents have proven to be prohibitive in most spaces. In others, future landlords will only offer leases if they drop a book on racial theory where untold stories are important.
“These are stories that have not been told,” Barrios Grassian said. “Anaheim needs to hear them. Everyone needs to hear them.”
She greeted Benjamin Smith Jr. of Riverside. He had read the night before and was back now with his poetry book.
“I can sell them, but we should do events just for you, because people like to meet the authors of books they may buy,” Barrios Grassian told Smith. He sparkled.
Hailey Sotero, a 15-year-old student at Savannah High School in Anaheim, reads poems on an open mic night in Untold Story.
(Allen J. Scheven/Los Angeles Times)
“Liz gives people a chance,” Smith, 68, told me. “I’m not famous for anyone, but look at me now.”
Barrios Gracián continues his work at Gilbert High. There, he leads the Teen Parent Support Program at Continuation School. In The Untold Story, she hopes to host more author signatures and launch an oral history project to help students document the stories of Latinx Elders in Anaheim.
“We are in a critical moment where we have to tell stories from the past,” she said. “Ellos Sobrevivieron, También Nosotros [They survived, we can as well]. It brings hope. ”
One of the things I suggested she was working on is the business side. The book is incredibly affordable. J. I returned $11 for a copy of the biographies of Robert Oppenheimer and a book about the rise of Rajute before World War II. Barrios Gracián’s training consisted of a free entrepreneurial course through the city of Anaheim. This is a video from the American Booksellers Assn, an American Booksellers Assn, a video of an American bookstore that talks to American bookstore owners and Googles how to open a bookstore.
She laughed.
“I tell my students that I fall and get up and learn,” she said. “If you can make money, that’s great, but that’s not the point here. It might sound crazy to business people, right?”
The numbers are thankfully going “in the right direction,” said Magda Borbon, manager of the untold story. Barrios Gracián was one of her favorite teachers at Katella High School, so she said she worked in the store, “Now it’s time to pay it back.”
Like me and many other Anaheimers, Borbon moved to Santa Ana.
Barrios Gracián has made an excuse himself to welcome more customers. I walked to the table where a group of women were drawing the book cover as part of the book club. That was everyone’s first story.
“This is an extension of Liz,” said Angela Stetcher, who previously worked with Barrios Gracien. “She’s been talking about doing something like this for years, and it’s great to see her do it.”
“It’s like what you see in San Francisco,” added Maria Zacharias, who grew up in Anaheim and now lives in Santa Ana.
“You go to the bookstore, you feel like you can’t touch anything because everything is so pretty,” Liliana Mora said. She waved around the room as more people streamed. “It feels like home here.”
Source link
