Barrio Books
720 W Silverlake Rd #302, Tucson, AZ 85713

Transcript

Tony Ray Baker
Okay, here we go. Hi, I’m Tony Ray Baker with Remax select. And today I’m really excited to introduce you to Syrena. You told me your last names.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo

Tony Ray Baker
She says it so beautifully. I’m not going to butcher that name so I’m not gonna say it. You are the owner of Barrio Books?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
I am, yes.

Tony Ray Baker
And where are we? We’re in the hotel?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes, we’re located in Hotel McCoy, former room 302.

Tony Ray Baker
This is, wait, this was room 302? That’s awesome, and your next room 303? It’s obvious when you pull into the Hotel McCoy, which is right off of I-10 and Silver Lake, right?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. And then when you pull in, you’ll come through the main entrance. And she’s immediately on the right side. Very easy to find.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
A bright red door.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. And how long have you been here?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
A little over a year, a year, and a month.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, it’s an anniversary already.

Jenn Hopkins
Congratulations!

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Thank you.

Tony Ray Baker
How did this come about? I mean, we’re in a hotel room, which is now a store. Your store.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes my store.

Tony Ray Baker
There’s a story here.

The Story

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yeah. So we were lucky enough to partnership, to have a partnership between us and the hotel. So they were looking for someone to run a bookstore in there in the hotel.

Tony Ray Baker
And here you are. That’s awesome. So I see lots of books, but I also see lots of fun stuff as well. Go ahead Jenn and talk about what you’re dying to buy over here.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yeah, these little blank books are bestsellers.

Jenn Hopkins
I love these notebooks! U of A Bear Down colors, check that out.

Tony Ray Baker
Bitch Please I’m From Tucson. That’s just hysterical.

Syrena Arevalo-Truijo
Those die-hard Tucsonans.

Tony Ray Baker
You’ve got jewelry and stickers.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes, we have jewelry as well.

Jenn Hopkins
Give us a tour!

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Absolutely, so we have a few local vendors as well. So here is Mrs. Chingaderaz, she has earrings. I’m sporting some of her jewelry too also have Reisa 420. She has these beautiful candles that smell amazing, and they’re infused with CBD. So those are gorgeous. We have bookmarks, we have T-shirts. We have just a whole bunch of these little cositas, so you can call them little things.

Tony Ray Baker
Little things, I like the word cositas. Speaking of little things can you explain this to me?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes. Jenn is dying for these.

Jenn Hopkins
That watermelon is mine!

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Paleditos, everyone loves them when they come in. Hard candies with chili and lime inside of them. So people are really familiar with the chili and lime outside, but these are inside.

Tony Ray Baker
Okay, so we go down to Rocky Point, about four times a year. And there’s a guy down there who takes a mango, and he carves it beautifully, just beautiful, like his art. He covers it with chili and lime. So this is mango, and you’re telling me the Chilean lines inside? Yes. So I could have a taste, Okay, I’m taking one of these home. I’ll buy it.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
They’re delicious.

Tony Ray Baker
That looks delicious, So there are different flavors? Where do these come from?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
We have a distributer, I believe in San Antonio, but they’re nationwide.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, I’ve seen these before, I’m excited about the mango. And you found a unicorn I see. Get it closer.

Jenn Hopkins
This is coming home with me. Oh my gods I love it.

Tony Ray Baker
It’s so cute, is it a keychain?

Jenn Hopkins
It IS a keychain! And hand beaded.

Tony Ray Baker
By someone here?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Actually, those were imported from Oaxaca. Yea the beautiful artisans there create these incredibly intricate little like animalitos and just they’re just gorgeous.

Jenn Hopkins
We have some at the Tucson Museum of Art.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yeah, they do!

Tony Ray Baker
Are they the animals that are painted in beautiful colors that are made out of wood or something? They’re stunning.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yea they’re gorgeous.

Tony Ray Baker
So these came from the same place?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes.

Tony Ray Baker
This is so cute.

Jenn Hopkins
It’s the only unicorn they have.

Support Local

Tony Ray Baker
So some of this stuff is local?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes.

Tony Ray Baker
So the mugs behind you are a local artist?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
They came in, the coffee as actually local too. This incredible coffee is cinnamon and chocolate infused. It’s amazing.

Jenn Hopkins
Just put that on the chair for me.

Tony Ray Baker
But, ohhh it is really nice.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
And the makers of this coffee, our partnership with a lot of coffee distributors in Ecuador. So it’s all like, like from the farmer to distributed into your coffee cup.

Tony Ray Baker
So, yeah, well, I don’t want to tell you everything that’s in your store, that would ruin some of the cool surprises. It’s a small space with a lot of punch. Yeah, that’s what I’ve noticed, because I keep staring around and finding new things. So I’m really excited to turn off the video and to get the shop. So what are your hours? What are your, what days and times are you open?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
We’re open 10:00 to 5:00 Tuesday through Sunday. Closed on Mondays.

Tony Ray Baker
Closed on Mondays. Okay. anything else we should know before we close this down?

Additional Questions?

Jenn Hopkins
I have a question. So you focus on local Latin American authors, artists, stuff like that?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes I did.

Jenn Hopkins
How did you cultivate those relationships? How did you meet these people that you are vending for?

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
The way this concept came about was the incredible importance of representation in the media. So there’s a lot of growth in the representation like the movie Encanto.

But like in literature it’s very slow. I wanted to do my part and actually create a space for these books. Especially with authors like Carlos (Valenzuela,) authors like Lidia Terro, Alva Torres here from Tucson.

Tony Ray Baker
We’ve been very fortunate to get to interview Carlos Valenzuela. You have his book in Spanish and English.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Yes both English and Spanish.

Tony Ray Baker
It’s a very cool story, I love that story. Well thank you so much for letting us come in here.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Absolutely, any time.

Tony Ray Baker
We’ll get to shopping now.

Jenn Hopkins
There goes my paycheck. Thank you for providing such a beautifully inclusive and safe space in Tuson.

Syrena Arevalo-Trujilo
Absolutely.

Tony Ray Baker
Yea it’s really awesome. Thank you, thank you.

If you need anything I’m Tony Ray Baker with RE/Max Select, my number is 520-631-8669. Please come visit Syrena down here at Barrio Books at Hotel McCoy. We’re going to do a thing on Hotel McCoy. It’s going to be very fun. Awesome. Have a great day. Bye.