Ante Books just had their soft opening on June 3rd. If you're looking for a symbol to let you know you're at the right place, there's a cute green bunny flag waving by the front door. In McAllen I can only think about Barnes n Nobles or even Target (I've only purchased one book here ever) that carry my interests. Other than that I'd have to rely on eBay, thriftbooks, and goodreads to learn about new books. I could easily order these books, but there's a thrill about finding the books you're looking for! When I was at Ante Books and showing finds with friends we were just astounded by our finds. There was something that fit our interests and our curiosities. Funny enough someone actually found this book called "my year of rest and relaxation" and I internally screamed haha, but I'm glad someone was just as excited as I was when they had their hands on the book.
There's variety, from: Cinema, Classic Lit, Children's Books, History, a Pride section, and more. These "labels" aren't enough to show what they hold. You'd have to go yourself and go corner to corner, cover to cover, and each section. I look forward to seeing what Selina brings into the bookstore. The way she spoke I can feel that she's got so many ideas and ideas on literature to provide to the community that can't be commonly found especially at your retail corporations that sell books.
I got the opportunity to speak to Selina Herrera on Ante Books as she shares about the journey, her ideas, and what she wishes to bring forward with her independent bookstore.
Asking Selina, what motivated her to open up her bookstore? What gave you the idea to do this as she explains "Initially, I wouldn't get hired back at the bookstore I worked and the library wouldn't hire me. Also, whenever I traveled to other cities, they had an abundance of independent bookstores. I just knew there was just something like that missing here in valley, especially in McAllen. Initially I just had to shoot my shot." Well I believe Selina and she scored. When you can't work in what you're interested in well, fuck it. She opened up her own independent bookstore and aims to provide what SHE wishes to provide to the community. I really like that one store hmm half price books, but I found more day one within half an hour at Ante Books than two hours at half price books in Corpus and San Antonio. I look forward to the restocks and what Selina has in store. I will definitely be back.
Would you say that there is a mission statement or a message behind your bookstore as she says "the message with the bookstore is 'ante.' I see it in a way of betting on yourself and just going through with an idea no matter how scary it might seem." We'll touch on this in just a moment in one of the other questions.
How has the past couple of months been for you? Getting all of this together to get the bookstore up and running as Selina exclaims "oh it's been tough. With permits and inspections. It's been a lot with the everything that deals with the behind the scenes of trying to get up and running. It's really what set me back. I started out this late January and I didn't get much traction until mid-may. Here we are, the first few days of June and we're able to be open. A lot of filling in the store in the last couple of weeks. Just going through it, being patient and not giving up." Would that be an example of the message? Through the obstacles, time, and working to get it all running on June 3rd. Ante. Since late January...that's about half a year I want to say? 6 months leading to a wonderful soft-opening. Congrats!
When it comes to literature, what is it that you mostly wish to carry? What would would you like to provide to the community in terms of reading material as she says "I'd hope to have more, I hate to use the word but 'resistance literature.' Essentially books that you might not find at Barnes n Nobles or Target for example. I just aim to hold a variety of everything. I personally read just about anything, but for space I want to have more arts and culture on the shelve." I'd say that were books on the shelves that caught my attentions, titles I read to myself, and the variety was right in front of us. I wonder if seasonal or every couple of months they'd be dedicating the front portion of the bookstore or corners to different themes/topics. I only think this due to The Sopranos literature (I too own the Woke Up This Morning book) section although this was under "media" and also the pride literature in the front. I just liked that a lot.
Selina, do you wish to make this a space where you can invite organizations, artists, and local zine makers? Folks who can come and let's say drop off informative resources, zines, ect as she says "For sure, I welcome zines and independent artists. I want to mention that the first half of the store is THE bookstore and the back end of the space is the workshop where we'll be hosting studio art classes. I know for this month of June we are holding a collage class (sold out) and then we'll be having a chain mail workshop with our artist resident, Gloria Reyes (flyer down below).
I welcome artists, the community, anyone with writings that'd like to share that we can potentiality showcase here , have exhibits, and do more within that realm. In a sense helping people as well, helping people come up and give them the proper exposure." I think a zine library would be perfect at the Ante Bookstore. A zine library where folks could come drop off a copy of their zines. It isn't just about dropping it off, but it's community engagement with artists having their work together. When it comes to the workshop space in the back. Two workshops already? Damn. It's barely week two for real. I'm curious to see what other workshops are organized at the Ante Bookstore. How exciting!
Overall seeing and hearing the conversations at the Ante Book store was delightful. Folks talking about their finds, authors on the shelves they got excited about, and most importantly the love for finding a good book. Check out Ante Bookstore!