Santa Ana’s sole independent bookstore LibroMobile may be closing its doors.
“In the last six months, our book sales have been incredibly low, and so on top of that, California state arts funding was cut, which means we lost two big grants, like $50,000 worth of funding that we normally get for our programming,” says owner and founder Sarah Rafael García. “We don’t have enough money projected for 2025. Right now, we’re not even sure we’re going to make it to June.”
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García, who works another full-time job that runs through May, has had to cancel LibroMobile’s annual literary festival and events programming and she’s been dipping into her own income to keep the doors open at the store, which has two employees and additional student help.
“I have been contributing my own personal funds to keep it going,” she says. “We’re grassroots – I’m not a rich person, you know? I started the bookstore with a $10,000 yearly income, so I always tell people, I know how to survive off of very little money.”
She plans to continue doing pop-up sales events and the quarterly open mic night, although the money crunch has affected that event as well.
“We cannot pay our headliners. So whatever poet chooses to accept the invite to headline, they’re doing it for free,” she says.
The problem, she says, is not enough book buyers.
“We won’t be able to maintain a brick and mortar if people don’t buy books,” she says. “If we don’t increase book sales significantly in the next couple months, then in March I’m going to have to probably announce that we’re definitely closing in June.”
And while she says she’ll find a way to keep doing pop-ups and other events – she launched LibroMobile with a hand-me-down garden cart that gave the venture its name – “We won’t have a brick and mortar store, which is a really sad thing for our city, as the only independent bookstore in Santa Ana.”
No, it’s not the rent
García makes one thing clear: Don’t blame her landlords.
“We don’t pay market-rate rent. So when people say, ‘Oh, it’s your landlord, they should decrease it.’ That’s not true. They have been 100% supportive. They have not increased our rent because they know we’re in this situation,” she says. “They want to figure out how to make it work.”
She says LibroMobile reciprocates by creating community events in English and Spanish at the Bristol Swap Meet to bring people to the food courts as well as by helping to fund the site’s murals with grant money and city support.
“We’re more than a bookstore. We’re creating a place for our community where they can explore literature and the arts without having to pay for it,” she says, but adds that there are always costs to cover. “We have to pay a DJ. We have to pay for the equipment. Sometimes we have to rent chairs if we expect a bigger crowd for an event. So all those are additional costs.”
But she’s committed to serving the community.
“This is home for me … Santa Ana is where I went to school and keep returning, even though I have nobody left here, other than friends and chosen family, my godparents. But it’s still what I call home.”
Her father, Rafael Castillo García, worked for the Orange County Register for 10 years until he died unexpectedly in 1988 at age 36. She recalls how her father – who studied the paper to improve his language skills, attended community college and wrote poems he’d leave on the family refrigerator – would leave the house dressed in crisp slacks and a dress shirt.
“He always dressed sharp to go to work, to try to impress us to have better jobs,” says García, who would learn about the physical nature of his work after his death. “I didn’t know he was a labor worker. I had to go empty his locker out, and I found the coveralls.”
What’s next?
García says she has considered suggestions to start a crowdfunding campaign but ultimately decided against it.
“I know I could probably set up a GoFundMe, but where would that take us a year or two from now? We’ll be in the same position. If I don’t cultivate the culture and the tradition in Santa Ana and Orange County, then we’re still not creating sustainability,” she says. “I’m trying to cultivate the want and the need of books, not just holding rent.”
So what can local readers do to help?
“I want them shopping at the bookstore. [laughs] We go days without someone buying a book sometimes,” she says.
“We are the only bookstore in Santa Ana, but not just that. We’re the only bookstore in Orange County that prioritizes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color books, as well as Spanish, multicultural and bilingual books. We have a whole beautiful collection of BIPOC cookbooks – like, who does that, right? – on top of a special collection that prioritizes ethnic studies, gender studies and academic books at affordable prices.”
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García underscores her commitment to keeping prices reasonable – or even free. She stocks a Little Free Library at the Bristol Swap Meet, too.
“Maybe that’s why we’re not making enough money. But that’s the whole point of keeping books that are relevant to our community accessible and affordable,” she says.
While she says that the store is proudly political, García thinks LibroMobile has something that benefits the entire community.
“If you don’t like our politics, there’s still plenty of other books you can read in our store,” she says. “We have something for everyone, but we’re also not going to hide our political stances for the sake of capitalism.”
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