Families sat on the polka-dotted carpet at Los Amigos Books on a Saturday morning in November, listening to the monthly Spanish storytime. Children’s librarian and storyteller Rosie Camargo, also known as Miss Rosie, read “Gracias” by Jarvis, a book about a boy giving thanks for everything he likes.
“¡Gracias gorro por no dejar que mis pensamientos se escapen volando!” Camargo recited. “Gracias lluvia por los charcos”.
Children laughed, and parents listened closely while owner and former dual language teacher Laura Rodríguez-Romaní took pictures and videos for the bookstore’s social media accounts. The story times at Los Amigos Books are among the events the Spanish language bookstore offers to Chicago families seeking access to Spanish books.
Los Amigos Books’ mission
Rodríguez-Romaní launched Los Amigos Books as an online bookstore in 2021. What began as just an online catalog has evolved into a shop on Western Avenue in Chicago. She looks to promote language learning through her bookstore, with shelves stocked up with Spanish and bilingual books for children and young adults, promising accurate and respectful representations of the cultures being portrayed.
Shelves and tables stocked with picture books, fiction novels and biographies. (Photos by Mariana Bermudez.)
“If you know yourself and your culture and where you come from, you’re more sound of mind and comfortable with yourself and your own identity,” Rodríguez-Romaní said. “You’re also able to speak to your grandparents and the older generations.”
Raised in Chicago, Rodríguez-Romaní majored in Spanish at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. When she started taking night classes to be a librarian, she took a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, for an international book fair, where she learned about international publishers. This gave her the idea for Los Amigos Books. All this knowledge helps her select the books to display online and in the store. She also sells to libraries and dual language schools, looking for educational materials that American publishers don’t offer.
“I feel great responsibility to make sure that what we carry and sell to those clients are going to be used as educational tools and language models for the kids who are reading books, and to support their bilingual programming,” Rodríguez-Romaní said.
Success through their approach
Rosie Camargo is a customer and collaborator of Los Amigos Books. She is the cultural literacy specialist at South Holland Public Library.
“When I started ordering from her, my library admin was like, ‘Well, you can order these from Baker and Taylor,’” Camargo said. “I’m like, ‘No, I can’t. These publishers don’t sell to those big distributors, so in order to get those in my library, I have to order through her.’”
Camargo collaborates with Los Amigos Books to lead monthly Spanish story times, which include music and arts and crafts. In November, families decorated Christmas trees and made star-shaped frames to take home.
(Photo by Mariana Bermudez.)
According to a 2023 Pew Research Center report on the importance of Spanish usage among future U.S. Latino generations, over 65% of more than 3,000 Latinos surveyed agreed it is important.
Rodríguez-Romaní, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, wants her son, Noah, to stay connected with the language and culture.
“My son was one of my biggest motivations,” Rodríguez-Romaní said. “Him and children of his age, and having them have a space where you walk in and they see their language all over the shelves, and they see characters that look like them.”
Los Amigos Books also holds book signings with Latino authors.
In October, they welcomed Mexican author Isis Macedo Suárez, who lives in Chicago, to present her recently launched bilingual book “Strelin y su viaje al planeta azul” (Strelin and Her Journey to the Blue Planet).
Suárez says Los Amigos Books “is a unique environment. It gives that familiarity when you enter, as if you were in a living room, without the rigidity of big bookstores,” she said in Spanish. “With Los Amigos Books, you really feel that affection and love for literature.”
Looking ahead
Customers like Claudia Alemán, a babysitter who shopped at the bookstore a Wednesday in November, said bookstores like this one help Hispanic children not lose interest in their cultures. During a walk at Holstein Park, only a few minutes east of the bookstore, she decided to pay a visit. While the little girls she cares for only read English, the native Mexican believes she can teach them about her language and culture through books.
“They don’t understand, but if we teach them a little, they grow up with curiosity,” Alemán said in Spanish.
Rodríguez-Romaní says they get a mix of families who register for storytime. The diversity of her customers shows Los Amigos Books’ success in reaching people who also value multiculturalism.
Samuel Rodríguez, Rodríguez-Romaní’s husband, says these crowds are encouraging.
“It kind of shows us that we are doing something right, and there are other people out there that want to raise their kids bilingual, even if they are not from Latino cultures,” Rodríguez said.
As the story time in November ended, families finished decorating their Christmas frames and even purchased books on their way out, carrying paper bags with the Los Amigos Books logo.
Rodríguez-Romaní hopes Los Amigos Books continues to grow, as she is open to expanding to other locations.
“You might see big chain stores post about some Spanish language books by Latino authors only in Hispanic Heritage Month, but that’s what we do year-round all the time,” Rodríguez-Romaní said.
Cover Photo: Owner Laura Rodríguez-Romaní at Los Amigos Books, located at 2207 N. Western Ave. (Photo by Mariana Bermudez.)
Mariana Bermudez is a second-year student at Northwestern University studying journalism and creative writing. An aspiring bilingual sports journalist, she hopes to represent Latina women in the sports industry, while continuing to report on issues that affect Hispanic and Latino communities. When she is not pitching a story or reporting on the ground, she can be found taking Latin dance classes, learning Portuguese or reading a good romance novel.
She can be found on LinkedIn here and on Instagram as @mari_bermudez05
Publisher’s Notes: This story, among others, was produced by undergraduate students in the bilingual reporting class at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media & Integrated Marketing Communications. Led by Prof. Mei-Ling Hopgood, the class aims to help journalism students practice sensitive and ethical engagement and reporting with multicultural communities in Spanish and English.