Holding Space: Libélula Books & Co.

Jesi Gutierrez loves their neighborhood of Barrio Logan in San Diego, California. They bring the hallowed lines of American author and theorist bell hooks to life: love is “ the will to extend one’s self to nurture one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” 

That’s evident in the bookstore, Libélula Books & Co, that Gutierrez and their wife, Araceli “Celi” Hernandez, opened in 2021. Named for the Spanish word for dragonfly, Gutierrez acknowledges that it’s not a common word even for native Spanish speakers. The root of the word comes from the word for “free.” It also means "relationship to an impossible creature,” Gutierrez noted. An apt description for the beautiful space that the two owners have made.

Literacy as a Superpower and a Bookstore as a Swiss Army Knife

Gutierrez and Hernandez have aspired to make the bookshop a place where “all are welcome” and have really worked to make that mission into reality. In an interview, Gutierrez explained “every community deserves a third space that is somewhat oriented around or even centralized around literacy.” 

For Gutierrez, literacy is a superpower. Studies have shown that higher literacy rates contribute to higher health and wellness of a community. It helps “the community’s ability to work together, to see one another, to celebrate each other, to protect each other, [and] to keep one another safe.” Gutierrez and Hernandez have worked to ensure the bookstore was a place that people can access stories, fictional, nonfiction, personal and/or collective. Gutierrez really believes in the power of books to do so much to help people. “They really are like the Swiss Army Knife. They really can solve a lot of problems,” Gutierrez said.

But books are only one part of the equation. The bookstore is meant to serve as a place for people to find what they need. It’s a place for people to find community, whether it’s a stranger or a regular at the shop; it’s also a place where people can take time for themselves on the couch with a book and/or pet the shop’s kitty. It may mean finding a clean washroom too.

The owners made choices to ensure the shop served the community they are a part of. The shop is open seven days a week. Since many people in the neighborhood are working class folks who often work on weekends, the shop is intentionally open on Mondays and Tuesdays, when a lot of other shops are usually closed. 

Gutierrez noted that many shops in Barrio Logan close early due to safety concerns. Libélula is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., allowing people to visit during daytime hours. They want to open later at some point but it’s a matter of figuring out the labor aspect.

The shop also has both a seed library and free library outside. Thanks to support from the Audubon Foundation, the bookshop was given seeds for two seasons and people can just take what they need for their gardens. In recent years, the little free library outside the shop has increasingly functioned as a food pantry, reflecting a broader trend in San Diego and beyond. The owners are now planning to install a dedicated food pantry, which will be built stocked regularly thanks to Gutierrez’s connections in the food and service industry.

Libélula also hosts a variety of events and programming. The bookstore has two artistic residences. The first is a tiny gallery residence, which lasts about three months and has an art gallery opening on the Second Saturday of the month. They are very popular events in a neighborhood already known for its artwork; the neighborhood’s historically significant Chicano Park was designated a National Historic Landmarks in 2017 for its murals depicting Mexican-American and Chicano culture. 

For the tiny art gallery, the owners turned their basement, which has high ceilings, into the gallery itself. They cut the door to the basement in half and made it into a viewing gallery, where you can look into the gallery. Exhibitions have included narrative shows around the border wall, the occupation and genocide in Palestine, immersive experiences by muralists, and light art. The next show will feature a ceramicist. While the bookstore does not have a stipend to pay the artist, the artist receives 100% on the sale of the artworks in the show and in an additional area set aside for the artist to store and sell their art. Gutierrez noted the art openings are super popular, with lines wrapping the building.

The other residency is a bookmark residency. With a stipend of $150, the artist creates a bookmark design in any style, including illustration, photography, and even work by tattoo artists. Libélula pays for the printing of 1,000 to 2,000 bookmarks, which are given away for free. It’s a fun way to connect the artists to the community; some people are diehards and have collected every single one. So far over seven artists have participated in the program, which started around 2023.

The bookstore also managed to install cement benches outside of the shop, which are available 24-hours a day. They are not owned by the city and lack any hostile-architecture to prevent people from sleeping on them. “It’s a regular spot for folks to just use for whatever they need,” Gutierrez noted, whether it’s catching some sun, reading, and/or resting.

Other events include author readings, workshops, two types of book clubs, and programming with Books Behind Bars, which connects people who are incarcerated with the books they are looking for. For both owners, the work is personal: they were previously incarcerated and, with a mix of humor and defiance, refer to themselves as felonistas. The shop also offers both paid and trade-based internships for students.

But for Gutierrez, one of the best parts about the space is that it’s frequented by children. “They're really just looking for somewhere to hang out,” Gutierrez said, recalling their own childhood. They’ve made a tea section and snacks for the kids. There’s free Wi-Fi and a laptop and printer that anyone can use. For a while, they hosted tutoring with the Brown Berets, but recently government incursions have caused the Brown Berets to focus their energy elsewhere, Gutierrez said. But they are happy to help someone with their homework if needed.

Despite frequent claims that children are reading less, Gutierrez sees kids of all ages come to the shop right after school. “Those are always really, really special moments where they come in, they bring their burrito and they just kick it and hang out,” they said.

Gutierrez also noted that many adults come into the space carrying unmet needs, shaped by the current political and economic climate. The importance of that space has become even more pronounced these days with government agencies kidnapping people off the streets and in their homes. Libélula is “just a lot of holding space” for people, they noted.

Ultimately, the bookshop is meant to be a place for anyone “no matter what someone is facing; where they come from; who they are; what their job description, what their title is in life or in their home,” Gutierrez explained. 

Planting the Seed of Literacy

Starting the bookstore involved being in the right place at the right time. Previously, Gutierrez had spent nine and a half years as an educator, working in Title 1 schools, like the ones they had attended when they were young. Their mother had instilled a love of language and storytelling from an early age; when Gutierrez was diagnosed with dyslexia, their mother and teachers helped them work through the learning disability. That inspired Gutierrez in their career: “I want to be part of someone's journey to make sure that happens for them.” They taught a niche intersection of literacy, integrating art with literacy, which is a fun and creative curriculum.

But when COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lock-down, funding dried up for Gutierrez’s work at Title 1 schools and found it hard to adapt the curriculum for online learning. “It just felt natural to pivot,” they noted. At the time, they felt that nothing made sense, so it seemed time to try something completely new and see what happened. “What do we have to lose?” Gutierrez asked, “I also felt so disconnected from my community that I was really seeking to not just serve my community, but also, like, serve myself and those closest to me who are looking for ways to connect.”

But figuring out what to do was not obvious. It became a whole family affair for Gutierrez. The ideas were diverse, from a coffee shop to a flower shop. Gutierrez knew little about running a coffee shop or flower shop, but “I kinda know something about books.” 

However, it wasn’t until Gutierrez and their wife moved back to Barrio Logan and saw the old triangle building up for rent. Gutierrez had remembered that when they previously lived in the neighborhood, the space was frequently shuttered. They always wondered what it looked like inside there. Hernandez suggested they call to check it out. Five weeks later, Hernandez and Gutierrez had the keys.

Now, the two of them had to figure out how to outfit the bookstore. Initially, a lot of people didn’t believe that the two of them could create a bookstore; that it was too pie in the sky. Gutierrez admitted that they hadn’t been saving to build out a bookstore, so they got creative. “We pretty much collected everything, either from free piles, offers, back alleys,” Gutierrez said, “As far as furniture and art goes, they were either found or donated.” 

They also went on a giant driving tour up from Baja, California to San Francisco in Gutierrez’s truck. They posted to social media that if anyone had any books to donate on the way, they’d pick them up to fill up the shelves of the bookstore. They stopped at Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Oakland, San Francisco, anywhere people had responded. They also found two bookshelves for free, all of which got loaded in the back. 

When they returned to Barrio Logan at 1am, they found a lock box in front of the shop. With the key, they started loading in the books and shelves they had collected after the ten hour drive. Gutierrez also offered up their own personal library, except for about 10 books, all of which have sold. The owners also found objects, little tchotchkes, that they sold. 

Gutierrez noted it was really scary to open, since it was part of the pandemic and they had to learn the book business. But when they held poetry events on the sidewalk, 75 to 100 people attended, spilling out in the street. “That’s kind of how it started and [it’s] just gotten even more strange, silly, expressive, and fun as we’ve continued,” Gutierrez said.

Libélula will celebrate its 5th anniversary next year in 2026. “When we connect with one another and when we share what we know, we literally are so powerful,” Gutierrez reflected. Despite everything happening in the world, Gutierrez finds hope in what happens inside the shop — moments like seeing someone pick up a “know your rights” zine and use it to locate detained family members. “These things are not done in vain, and these things are not done in a vacuum. Every drop is a drop in a bucket,” Gutierrez reflected. 

Gutierrez paraphrased the inspiring words of Angela Davis: “our hope is our superpower and a tool…It’s the sharpest tool in our shed. Where you find it, however you gain access to it, keep sharing with each other.”