Where To Buy And Sell Rare Latinx Books And Ephemera In The Mission

San Francisco CA

11 October, 2021

7:44 PM

Description

By Annika Hom, Mission Local October 11, 2021 I remember when my mom, a Mexican immigrant, could afford to live in the Mission District back in 2008. At the time, I was a college student in the East Bay, studying literature and Chicano history at Berkeley. But on weekends, I'd visit her on BART and she would take me to her favorite bars, restaurants, and shops throughout the area. I remember buying my first copy of a Juan Felipe Herrera poetry collection, Exiles of Desire, at Adobe Books on 24th, a decade before he went on to become the Poet Laureate of the United States. I remember walking around Balmy Alley, and meeting some of the artists who were involved in those historic murals. I remember the smoke, liquor, and smell of old leather inside Bissap Baobab–the Senegalese night club on Mission Street that closed in 2019 – before I was even 21. Though I never lived in the Mission, I have felt a certain connection to the neighborhood, people, and history that I picked up from my mom and through being a first-generation Mexican American with a deep interest in local art, music, literature, history, and community. To read the full article, click here. Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.