An Austin bookstore has begun a fundraiser to find a new location.
Resistencia Books will close its current shop, forced to vacate after the rent at its East Cesar Chavez location was sharply increased. Andrea Zarate , communications director for the bookstore, said that the organization had been notified that its $1,500 monthly rent was going to be “more than doubled” and that it had to vacate by the end of July.
Resistencia has begun a fundraising effort as they search for a new home. An email from the group said that all updates about a new location will be made via social media and their newsletter.
Red Salmon Arts, launched in 1983 as a nonprofit literary organization and small press that creates programming for the bookstore, is a 501(c)3 grassroots cultural arts organization, with a thirty-year history of working with the indigenous neighborhoods of Austin. According to the organization’s website, RSA is dedicated to the development of emerging writers and the promotion of Chican@/Latin@/Native American literature, providing outlets and mechanisms for cultural exchange, and sharing in the retrieval of a people’s cultural heritage with a commitment to social justice. RSA offers resources to Chican@/Latino@ and Native American communities living in working class neighborhoods of Austin to better understand the culture and arts of their families and ancestors.
Raúl R. Salinas, founder of Resistencia and RSA, was born in San Antonio and raised in Austin. From 1959 to 1971, Salinas was incarcerated on nonviolent drug-related charges. During this time, he became known for his prison poetry and work with other inmates in literature and art. Salinas became a renowned poet and a collection of his essays, raúlsalinas and the Jail Machine: My Weapon is My Pen, was published by University of Texas Press, before he died in 2008 from liver complications.
According to their fundraiser, Resistencia Books is seeking funds to cover moving expenses, pay rent or purchase a small property, and pay their part-time staff, who will be working overtime to resettle the bookstore.