OC Weekly columnist and author Gustavo Arellano says that Southern California’s landmark Librería Martinez bookstore may be forced to close by the end of the year.

Libreria Martinez in Santa Ana is one of the nation’s largest Latino bookstores.

Barber-turned-genuis-grant-winner Rueben Martinez opened his store more than a decade ago, turning a vacant storefront on Main Street into a bustling hub of Latino arts and literature. Arellano notes that Librería Martinez has hosted “every major American-born Latino author and most every Latin American titan of letters save Gabriel García Márquez.” It was at Libreria Martinez a few years ago that I got to meet author Isabel Allende; the exuberant line of book lovers that night snaked down and around the block.

But the bookstore has fallen on hard times this past year for a variety of reasons, and Martinez has fallen behind on his rent, even as he dips into retirement savings to keep the store afloat. Now he’s battling to save Libreria Martinez and asking longtime fans to do more than just praise his bookstore. “I can’t let my baby die,” he says. “I’ve just put too much into it to let it disappear.”

Read Arellano’s story here. Read more: at L.A. Now and an LA Times editorial.