Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/18929
NOVEMBER 2010 THE BEST OF LONG BEACH BEST OF BOOKS AND CULTURE A tiny bookstore on a quiet side street in north Long Beach has been helping immigrant parents pass the cultural torch to their children and shed light on Latino culture for many residents for the past 17 years. Cultura Latina sits in an 800-square-foot suite on Norse Way in an aging strip mall, off a shared hallway with a nail salon. It's humble, but it's vital for residents living between two cultures. This small store has made a full-time Long Beach City College professor and her husband, a retired businessman, somewhat of local celebrities with an expertise on all literature pertaining to Latinos. Unlike large book chains, the Canos take pride in being able to provide answers and recommendations to their diverse clientele eager to read and learn about everything from the history of East Los Angeles barrios to social issues of Central Americans. "We're not a Spanish bookstore," said Roberto Cano, who runs the store with his wife, Anita. Cultura Latina carries books written for and by Latinos living in the U.S. and has always set out to merge two cultures, Anita noted. "We used to import Spanish books from South and Central America," Anita said. "They don't really hit the nail on the head in terms of cultural relevance here in the U.S." In fact, most of the books in Cultura Latina are in English. A lot of the rest are in both English and Spanish, with only a small number of Spanish-only books. Roberto and his wife were busy sorting through their shelves one afternoon a few months ago, pulling off old titles and going through boxes of unreleased books deciding what to order for the holidays and the next school year. Anita pulled out a book from a pile on a table she decided to order, called "From North to South." It told the story, in English and Spanish with colorful pictures, of an American boy whose undocumented Mexican mother was deported from Southern California to Tijuana and his voyage to find her. WRITTEN BY PETER SUROWSKI BUSINESS & MONEY : BUSINESS PROFILE 60