Librería Donceles: A Community Exchange

A bookstore full of memories, history and culture.

Ilke Gunay

We live in a time where we keep all our memories locked inside tiny screens with memory clouds that can only handle so much information before asking –or harassing– us to upgrade the storage space. Everything we collect is either digital or hypermaterialistic, like blind box plushies and figurines.

While conglomerate bookstores like Barnes & Noble are still very much in business, we hardly ever visit independent bookstores to spend hours inside, trying to find “the one” book we like enough to take home. Even in the hobby of collecting, online bidding and shopping have replaced tactility.

Librería Donceles, a social-practice art project in Weisman Art Museum offers you the comfort of a used bookstore with its dim lighting and cozy reading chairs that make you want to snuggle up and browse the entire collection for the rest of the day. Inspired by Calle Donceles, a street in Mexico City known for its used bookshops, the Spanish-language bookstore offers a safe space to browse, read, and hang out for hours on end. Upon browsing, if you happen to find a book to add to your own library, you can do so by donating $1 that will fund Centro Tyrone Guzman, a local Latinx organization. Next door to the bookstore, there is a creative space where you can make your own bookmark and exchange it with someone else or hang it on a board that will later become a communal archive.

Founded in 2013, Librería Donceles has travelled to cities across the country and has been the sole Spanish-language bookstore in each city it has visited. With this community project, Mexico-born artist Pablo Helguera has created a space to raise awareness to the lack of Spanish-language bookstores in Latinx communities. With its vibrant colored walls, decorations and cozy atmosphere, Librería Donceleswill be at WAM until May 17, 2026. If you visit the bookstore, don’t forget to ‘record’ your memories on a handmade bookmark or through buying a book instead of a screen for once.