Barbershop to bookstore

This year’s recipients of the MacArthur Foundation fellowships, popularly and unofficially known as “genius grants,” have been announced. Some of their stories are pretty interesting:

“When the [program director] called, I was thinking of hanging up on him,” said Rueben Martínez, a barber in Santa Ana, Calif., who in 1993 began a bookstore in his barbershop to promote reading among Hispanic people. “I didn’t say anything to anyone for hours because I didn’t believe it. I’m floating.”

How he will use the money, he said, is still a delicious fantasy.

Mr. Martínez, 64, grew up in Miami, Ariz. (80 miles east of Phoenix), where his mother and father were copper miners. “In our little town we never had a bookstore,” he said. “We never had a library.” But his teachers made him an avid reader who appreciated the beauty and power of books, he said.

“I always had good books in the barbershop–Hemingway, Carlos Fuentes–but people would borrow them and never return them,” Mr. Martínez said. “That’s where the bookstore idea came from.”

Librería Martínez Books and Arts Gallery eventually expanded into its own location, and in 2001 Mr. Martínez opened a second store dedicated to children’s literature. He is also a co-founder of the Latino Book Festival, which tours nationally.

Cool. I suppose I have to suppress small pangs of “gee, what am I doing with my life?”–I try not to dwell too much on that–but seriously, stories like this are inspiring. Good for them. As an aside, the Cardinal connection: two recipients are Stanford professors.

» “MacArthur Foundation Gives $500,000 ‘Genius Awards’ to 23,” New York Times, 28 Sept.
» Overview of this year’s fellows.