In Miami-Dade County, Fla., Spanish dominates: 65% of residents speak the language at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and nearly 70% are Hispanic or Latino. The city represents a major market for Spanish-language literature, a place where native speakers may want to read books in their first language, and Spanish learners continually add to their ranks.
And yet the supply of Spanish-language books in Miami is scant. The city’s two major bookstores—Barnes & Noble and the locally owned chain Books & Books—have small selections of books in Spanish. Bestselling authors and classics crowd these sections. But Quade Books, the city’s first bilingual bookstore, seeks to offer more to readers.
Quade has four locations in Córdoba, Argentina. But when cofounders Evangelina Montiel and Jorge Caparelli visited Miami in 2015, they began to envision a fifth. In July, Quade Books opened in Aventura Mall. The shelves are stocked with a near-even split of books in Spanish and English. Montiel and Caparelli run the store from Argentina with several local employees, all of whom are bilingual.
So far, the feedback has been phenomenal, Caparelli says. A few days after opening, Caparelli was managing the store when a woman walked in with a baby stroller. “She came in euphoric,” he says. “She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.”
In the early days, customers thanked the pair for opening a bookstore. And the gratitude stemmed from the demand not only for bilingual bookstores, but also for bookstores in general. Quade Books is the lone bookstore in Aventura, a northern suburb of Miami-Dade County.
While it is true that, in the digital age, access to books no longer depends on physical location, it’s a sign that bookstores matter. “If I want to read the latest Yuval Noah Harari book, I can order it on Amazon and have it at my house that afternoon,” Montiel says. “There’s no way to compete with that.” Quade’s mission, he stresses, is about more than selling books. “There’s a romance, which I hope lasts forever, of a reader with a bookseller and with a bookstore,” Caparelli says.
Indeed, a bricks-and-mortar store can strengthen a community. To this end, Quade has hosted two events so far: a book signing with Romina Garber, an Argentinian author living in Miami, and a bilingual children’s book reading. Quade staff read a children’s story in English and one in Spanish, translating each in real time. And Montiel and Caparelli aim to create a space for readers of all ages to celebrate bilingualism.
This emphasis on bilingualism will only become more important as the country’s demographics evolve and Spanish becomes more widely spoken. And bookstores have an opportunity—some say a duty—to adapt to an ever-diversifying readership.
And not only in Miami, where Spanish speakers are more prominent. The demand for Spanish-language literature exists even in less characteristically Hispanic areas. In Des Moines, Iowa, Luis Luján is working to meet that demand through Nos Books, a multilingual pop-up bookshop, which grew out of a pop-up shop he first set up in 2023 with a selection of books in English and Spanish. Luján says his mission hinges on representation. “The purpose of the shop is to raise up literature by BIPOC authors,” he says, adding that his engagement with literature as a kid in Tucson, Ariz., informs his mission. He remembers reading classics such as One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish. “My libraries in school carried books in Spanish,” he says. The Midwest, however, lacks this abundance, he notes.
The dearth of Spanish-language literature in Des Moines is unsurprising given the city’s demography. Some 13% of residents speak Spanish at home, according to the Census Bureau. But nevertheless, the demand for books in Spanish endures. At every event Luján hosts, he says customers come asking for more books in Spanish.
The desire for Spanish-language literature stems as much from curiosity as familiarity with the language. Many customers come to Nos Books looking to connect with cultures other than their own. “I actually find that to be one of the most satisfying things,” Luján says, offering an example of a mixed-culture household, in which older people may look for new ways to connect with their half-Latino grandchildren.
And such interest goes beyond Spanish-language literature. Luján says customers often ask if he carries books in other languages, a need which he aims to meet. “The hope is to be able to have literature available to Des Moines in languages that represent the immigrant diaspora,” he says.
At the same time, as he anchors his ethos in representation, Luján also insists great literature is universal. “You don’t have to be Latino. You don’t have to be a member of a minority group to come in and find something that really resonates with you.”
Indeed, the success of both stores carry forward an important concept: great literature speaks to us all, and it should do so in all the languages we speak. And both Quade and Nos Books make clear that English and Spanish literature are not mutually exclusive markets. They can—and should—share shelf space in our communties.
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