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San Antonio’s Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center was founded in 1980 to highlight the cultural and artistic talents of the historic West Side.
It has since evolved to provide live theater, dance, and music education, and holds readings with esteemed authors.
The Guadalupe’s executive director, Cristina Ballí said one of those readings is happening this week in the Guadalupe’s Latino Bookstore.
The bookstore is located in the historic Progreso Pharmacy, a distinctive ceramic-tiled building at the corner of Guadalupe Street and Brazos.
The two-story pharmacy not only served the community as a drug store since the 1950s. Ballí says it was also a centerpiece for activism in the 1960s.
"It was a hub of civil rights activities," said Ballí. "That's where Willie Velasquez founded Southwest Voter Registration (Education) Project, and that's where the Guadalupe started with their administrative offices."
The building was renovated with bond funding and transformed into a bookstore that served as much needed center for literacy in an underserved book desert.
"It's important to have a Latino bookstore specifically, and of course, more so here in the West Side of San Antonio, where we have one of the highest illiteracy rates in the city, just as the West Side has some of the highest poverty rates, the lowest educational attainment rates," said Ballí. "So, we definitely wanted to make those books available in the neighborhood."
Ballí said the Latino Bookstore has regularly invited authors to talk about and read from their works.
Avelardo Valdez is one of those writers. A sociologist with San Antonio roots, Valdez has written the new book, “Homeboys Forever: The Lifetime Consequences of Gang Membership.” Valdez and his team interviewed young men from San Antonio’s West Side over a period of two decades. He examined the systemic inequalities they faced, their drift into gang life as adolescents in the 1990s and increased criminality in adulthood.
Ballí said Valdez once served on the board of directors of the Guadalupe, and has a unique perspective to share with audiences.
"This is a book about precisely the effects of everything — of economics, structures, government, all kinds of systems in this particular neighborhood," said Ballí. "And Lalo, this is a work of a lifetime that he's been doing for a long time. So, for him to be able to present it in a place that's dedicated to knowledge that is rooted in the neighborhood of the subjects that he studied, I think, is very special."
Avelardo Valdez will read from and discuss “Homeboys Forever,” with moderator Juan Tejeda of Aztlán Libre Press, Friday, Aug. 28, at 6:30 p.m., at the Latino Bookstore and Gift Shop. There is no cost to attend.
