Niche filled: Traditional bookstore opens in downtown Brownsville

Gilbert Hernandez thought being a mechanical engineer was something that he wanted to do, so he moved to Western Massachusetts where he enrolled in Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

During his studies, he decided this is not what he wanted to do, Hernandez said. He came back to Brownsville, took a sabbatical from college, and started visiting civic organizations in the community.

It was through these visits with organization members that he learned there was something many in Brownsville yearned for but was missing: a traditional bookstore.

Fast forward from those meetings, the 27-year-old Brownsville native opened the first traditional bookstore in this city with a population of about 186,000 plus.

The bookstore named Búho, which is Spanish for owl, is located in the heart of downtown Brownsville inside the historic Calderoni Building at 1140 E. Washington St.

“Owls mean symbols of wisdom, they are often associated with literature, libraries and bookstores,” Hernandez said.

The bookstore has all genres of books from science fiction to thrillers, to history books, to romance novels.

“People can find all kinds of books, I estimate there to be around 40 genres on our shelves,” he said.

Books by James Patterson, John Grisham, Danielle Steel, Tom Clancy to J.K. Rowling plus other authors are stacked on the bookshelves. Others are stored on the floor waiting to be placed.

Books are laid out on tables for bookstore customers to browse Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, at Búho bookstore on Washington Street in Brownsville. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)

“There’s a little bit of everything here,” he said as he looked around the bookstore.

Up to 10% of the books in the store are new and about 20% of them are donated and the rest come from secondhand sources, Hernandez said. There are about 5,200 books in the store.

The average book costs $10 or less and the is average between $3 to $7.

Hernandez knows a lot of people in Brownsville like to read but the cost of a new book may be a little pricey, “so this is my solution to the problem. Offer books at very reasonable prices.”

Hernandez did some research via Google and discovered that Brownsville was the only city of its size that didn’t have a bookstore.

Although there’s a Catholic bookstore in Brownsville, a used bookstore in Harlingen, and a couple of bookstores in the Laguna Madre area, there was no bookstore that could fill the niche that Brownsville book lovers needed.

Hernandez held some test runs last week at his bookstore to see what the public’s response would be and dozens of people showed up to see what his store had to offer. At one of the tests runs he had at least 60 people inside. He even ran out of paper bags for the books that customers bought. More bags are on the way.

The idea of opening a bookstore in Brownsville came to Hernandez while he was in the shower on Jan. 8, 2022, he recalled. He had come back from college and was trying to get reestablished in Brownsville and joined various organizations.

“I did hear this complaint over and over again ‘why don’t we have a bookstore. I have to drive to McAllen, I have to drive to the Island to get my books’,” Hernandez said, adding that he, too, had that complaint because he likes to read books.

“If you approach a project with passion, the more you do it, the more you get people on board with your mission, the likely is for you to create your own luck, the more doors you open,” he said.

Búhu created a buzz in the community and on social media as well.

To find the perfect location for his bookstore, Hernandez would drive around downtown Brownsville to see if he could find a place for Búhu and noticed the Calderoni Building was being renovated. “I could not imagine it anywhere else.”

In August 2022 he happened to meet up with the man who was renovating the building and offered to lease it to him. “He said ‘I want you in my building’,” Hernandez recalled.

Owner Gilbert Hernandez prices books Friday, Jan. 20, 2023, at Búho bookstore on Washington Street in Brownsville. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)

Hernandez said the response he’s received has come from baby boomers, Generation Z, millennials and Generation X. “It’s diverse.”

Búhu’s grand opening is months away and Hernandez said he plans to have additional test runs before then “to satisfy the thirst. Before Búho we lived in a book desert, this is a little oasis. This is a little glass of water in the desert. Soon it will be a watering hole.”

“This gives Brownsville a little taste of the bookstore experience,” he said.

Although the Búho is not officially open to the public, Hernandez said if the lights are on and he is inside, anyone is welcome to come in and browse around.

Hernandez accepts credit cards, debit cards, and payments from apps such as Zelle, Cash App and Venmo.

His next test run will be on the First Friday event scheduled for Feb.3, and hopes to draw traffic to his business at this time.

“I feel like it’s something that must be done…I feel like I have unlocked a new emotion,” he said.

“This whole project exists because of love for Brownsville. …This is my way of giving back that love that in a way that I feel adds value to the community,” Hernandez said.