The crowd inside the Untold Story in Anaheim was ready for open mic night to begin last week, but there was no way it would start on time. <\/p>\n
Whenever owner Lizzette Barrios Graci\u00e1n tried to approach the podium, someone pulled her away for a hug. A congrats. A recommendation. A thanks.<\/p>\n
The bookstore opened last year in an industrial part of the city so isolated that 911 dispatchers couldn\u2019t find it when Barrios Graci\u00e1n called about a medical emergency. Though it quickly earned a loyal following for focusing on BIPOC books and allowing activists to meet there without having to buy anything, the location wasn\u2019t working, and Barrios Graci\u00e1n was ready to close what had been a longtime dream.<\/p>\n
Then she found a better, if smaller, place in a strip mall near downtown, within walking distance of her home. The Untold Story reopened a few weeks ago, and this was the first open mic night at the new spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my god, what a difference location makes,\u201d Barrios Graci\u00e1n told me as people kept filing in on July 25. \u201cThey\u2019re coming to hang out, they\u2019re coming to buy, they\u2019re coming to organize, they\u2019re coming from across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the customers she talked to that day: Toby from Florida. Nick from Kentucky who lives in Utah. A group of teenage girls in town for a water polo tournament. Anton Diubenko of Ukraine, who was in Orange County to see a friend and told me he visits bookstores around the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis one\u2019s really nice,\u201d Diubenko said. \u201cIf I was a local, I\u2019d come here every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrios Graci\u00e1n finally reached the podium. She was 20 minutes late. No one cared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you muchachos!\u201d the 52-year-old said in a loud, warm tone that hinted at her day job as a history teacher at Gilbert High in Anaheim. \u201cBienvenidos to our new location of the Untold Story, Chapter 2! Your job tonight is to support, clap and give lots of love.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lizzette Barrios Graci\u00e1n, owner of the Untold Story bookstore, is also a history teacher at Gilbert High School in Anaheim.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Over the next two hours, the audience snapped their fingers, applauded, hooted in approval or nodded as speakers poured out their proverbial hearts in English, Spanish and Nahuatl. Local political blogger Vern Nelson<\/a> tickled out on his electric keyboard the Mexican children\u2019s tune \u201cEl Rat\u00f3n Vaquero\u201d as adults and teens alike sang and clapped along. Every time someone went up to perform, Barrios Graci\u00e1n sat in their seat, because all the others were occupied. <\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest success of this bookstore,\u201d she said in closing, flashing a smile as bright as her gunmetal gray hair, \u201cis uniting all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the night was officially over, no one left. They wanted to exult in the moment. <\/p>\n Vivian Lee, who organizes board game get-togethers at the bookstore through her role as community engagement coordinator for the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, said that \u201cwelcoming spaces\u201d can be hard to find in her native city. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople like Liz are just so incredible,\u201d said Lee, 30. \u201cShe\u2019s game for anything that helps community.\u201d<\/p>\n Paola Gutierrez teaches monthly bilingual poetry classes at the Untold Story. \u201cWhen I first asked if she could sell my book, she said not just \u2018Yes\u2019 but \u2018We will promote you and help you,\u2019\u201d the 47-year-old said. \u201cHow can I not say I\u2019m free for whatever you need?\u201d<\/p>\n She pointed at a massive couch and laughed. \u201cLiz needs me to move this freakin\u2019 thing again? Let\u2019s do it!\u201d<\/p>\n Barrios-Gracian, center, introduces poets during her bookstore\u2019s open mic night last week.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n I visited Barrios Graci\u00e1n the following day when things were chiller. The Untold Story\u2019s design is bohemian Latinx. All the fixtures and artwork are donated, including bookshelves, massive mirrors and a bust of the Egyptian goddess Isis as well as a replica of the Titanic above the used fiction section. Insulation peeks out from sagging ceiling tiles. A stand next to the gift section offers free toiletries and canned and dried food.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going through hard times,\u201d Barrios Graci\u00e1n said as Argentine rock gods Soda Stereo played lightly from speakers. \u201cI can\u2019t give a lot, but I can give.\u201d<\/p>\n How did she think open mic night went?<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very successful for our first time here,\u201d she responded. \u201cYou never know if people will follow you when you move.\u201d<\/p>\n A customer walked in. <\/p>\n \u201cHi, welcome!\u201d Barrios Graci\u00e1n exclaimed, the first of many times she would do that during our chat. \u201cDon\u2019t shy away, you don\u2019t have to buy!\u201d<\/p>\n Born in Guadalajara, Barrios Graci\u00e1n came to Anaheim with her parents in the 1980s without papers, eventually legalizing through the 1986 amnesty<\/a>. A bookworm from a young age, she found her \u201csafe space\u201d as a teen and young adult in long-gone bookstores such as Book Baron in Anaheim<\/a> (\u201cI loved how disorganized it was\u201d) and the bilingual Librer\u00eda Mart\u00ednez in Santa Ana<\/a>.<\/p>\n When the latter closed in 2016, Barrios Graci\u00e1n vowed to open a version of it when her daughters were older. In 2021, she launched the Untold Story as a website and a pop-up, aiming to eventually open a storefront in her hometown.<\/p>\n \u201cAnaheim is nothing but breweries,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the teacher in me. There\u2019s nothing cultural for our youth \u2014 they have to go to Santa Ana to find it, while [Anaheim] lets gentrification go crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Rent proved prohibitive at most spaces. At others, prospective landlords would offer a lease only if the Untold Story dropped its books on critical race theory, which she refused to do.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the untold stories,\u201d Barrios Graci\u00e1n said. \u201cAnaheim needs to hear them. Everyone needs to hear them.\u201d<\/p>\n She greeted Benjamin Smith Jr. of Riverside, who had read the previous night and was returning now with his poetry books. <\/p>\n \u201cI can sell them, but we should have an event just for you, because people like to meet the author of the book they might buy,\u201d Barrios Graci\u00e1n told Smith. He beamed.<\/p>\n Hailey Sotelo, 15, a student at Savanna High School in Anaheim, reads her poetry during the Untold Story\u2019s open mic night.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cLiz gives people chances,\u201d Smith, 68, told me. \u201cI\u2019m no one famous, but look at me here now.\u201d<\/p>\n Barrios Graci\u00e1n is keeping her job at Gilbert High, where she also heads the continuation school\u2019s teen parent support program. At the Untold Story, she wants to host more author signings and launch an oral history project for students to record the stories of Anaheim\u2019s Latino elders.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a crucial moment where our stories must be told from the past,\u201d she said. \u201cEllos sobrevivieron, tambi\u00e9n nosotros [They survived, we can as well]. It brings hope.\u201d<\/p>\n One thing I suggested she work on is the business side. The books are ridiculously affordable \u2014 used copies of a J. Robert Oppenheimer biography<\/a> and a book about the rise of Nazism in L.A. before World War II<\/a> set me back $11. Barrios Graci\u00e1n\u2019s training consisted of a free entrepreneur course through the city of Anaheim, a video by the American Booksellers Assn., talking to other bookstore owners and Googling \u201chow to open a bookstore.\u201d<\/p>\n She laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell my students we learn by falling and then getting back up,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I can make money, it would be great, but that\u2019s not the point here. Might sound crazy for business people, right?\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers are thankfully going \u201cin the right direction,\u201d said the Untold Story\u2019s manager, Magda Borbon. Barrios Graci\u00e1n was one of her favorite teachers at Katella High School, \u201cso now it\u2019s time to pay it back\u201d by working at the store, she said.<\/p>\n Like me and too many other Anaheimers, Borbon moved to Santa Ana \u201cbecause I didn\u2019t see myself culturally in Anaheim. Now I do.\u201d<\/p>\n Barrios Graci\u00e1n excused herself to greet more customers. I walked over to a table where a group of women were painting book covers as part of their book club. It was everyone\u2019s first time at the Untold Story.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is very much an extension of Liz,\u201d said Angela Stecher, who has worked with Barrios Graci\u00e1n before. \u201cShe\u2019s been talking about doing something like this for years, and it\u2019s wonderful to see her do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is like something that you\u2019d see in San Francisco,\u201d added Maria Zacarias, who grew up in Anaheim and now lives in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go to a bookstore, you feel like you can\u2019t touch anything because everything is so neat,\u201d said Liliana Mora. She waved around the room as more people streamed in. \u201cHere, it feels like home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crowd inside the Untold Story in Anaheim was ready for open mic night to begin last week,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[29000,12041,353,11267,49,48,8497,12389,75,29003,2151,29001,13019,28998,171,29002,17838,7479,28999],"class_list":{"0":"post-40208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-book","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-bookstore","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-city","15":"tag-day","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-gilbert-high","18":"tag-home","19":"tag-liz","20":"tag-one","21":"tag-owner-lizzette-barrios-gracian","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-santa-ana","24":"tag-thing","25":"tag-time","26":"tag-untold-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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