El Tecolote Vol. 46 Issue 21

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20 16 guí Vot e ad el r gui vo d ta e ins nt e p ide p Ág ina g 5 12

FREE//GRATUITO

Published by Acción Latina

eltecolote.org

Octubre 20 - Noviembre 2 , 2016

Vol. 46 No. 21

Personal de la Librería Modern Times (de izquierda a derecha) Graciela Trevisan, Denise Sullivan, Ashton Di Vito, Ruth Mahaney y Mónica Carranza, posan frente a la librería el martes 18 de octubre. The Modern Times Bookstore staff. (From left) Graciela Trevisan, Denise Sullivan, Ashton Di Vito, Ruth Mahaney and Monica Carranza, pose in front of Modern Times Bookstore on Tuesday Oct. 18. Photo: Drago Rentería

Beloved bookstore closing its doors after 45 years of service Mabel Jiménez El Tecolote

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he Mission District has seen a wave of business closures over the last few years, as gentrification and rising rents have made it nearly impossible for small shops and collectives to survive. Modern Times Bookstore, which has announced that it will close on Nov. 15, is one of the latest casualties. The iconic legacy business has always taken pride in being more than just a place to buy books. It operated as a community space where residents exchanged the kinds of revolutionary ideas and struggles that have become harder and harder to come by as San Francisco’s poets, activists and artists continue to be displaced. Modern Times was founded as a collective in 1971, the same year as the international book retailer Borders. The chain store—which was operating more than 500 stores in the US in 2010—filed for bankruptcy and was liquidated in 2011. Modern Times took its name from a 1936 movie by Charlie Chaplin. Set during the Great Depression, the film was widely perceived as a critique of capitalism and the industrial era. One of the films most memorable scenes depicts Chaplin’s character—a factory worker who suffers a nervous breakdown from repetitive work—being dragged into the insides of a machine and is caught within its gears, becoming just another cog. “A lot of people don’t understand … if they haven’t seen the movie,” said Ruth Mahaney, Modern Times’ longest standing employee. “That’s what our roots are in: leftist politics, Marxism, anti-capital, anti-imperial politics... So the wonderful scenes in there with Charlie Chaplin getting caught in the machinery ... [are] sort of representative of what I think people’s politics were about.” The store had four different locations during its 45-year history, but it was the third location at 888 Valencia Street (from 1991 to 2011), where the problems started. The store was already struggling to pay $6,400 a month in rent when the property owners requested $10,000, an amount the small collective could not afford. As Valencia Street became gentrified at a faster rate than other areas of the Mission, many residents moved toward the center

Librería Modern Times cierra tras 45 años de servicio

of the neighborhood, and in 2011 Modern Times followed them with a move to its current and final location at 2919 24th Street. While the move saved them money on rent, they lost customers, and the store, operating at a deficit for the last 10 years, was never able to recover. “A lot of people peeled off because they just don’t come to this part of the Mission,” said Ashton Di Vito, a manager and book buyer who has worked at the store for the last four years. “San Francisco is very neighborhood territorial, but the Mission is oddly street territorial ... the move down here, it was a very big demographic shift.” The bookstore’s closure isn’t just the result of rent increases but also a general shift in the publishing industry as people read fewer books. Many have also turned to other forms of media, such as e-books, or increasingly purchase their books from online retailers as opposed to brick and mortar Interior de la Librería Modern Times. Interior of Modern Times Bookstore. Photo: Drago Rentería shops. “Some of our customers can’t afford to una crítica al capitalismo y la era industrial. buy books anymore, it’s not their fault and I Mabel Jiménez Una de las escenas más memorables de la wish we could give them to them cheaper,” El Tecolote película presenta al personaje de Chaplin said Mahaney, adding that the local coml Distrito de la Misión ha contempla- —trabajador de una fábrica que sufre una munity supported Modern Times every do una ola de cierre de negocios en crisis nerviosa por el trabajo repetitivo— ser time the store reached out for help. “Peolos últimos años, debido al fenómeno arrastrado al interior de una máquina y queple always stepped up to do that, [but] the de gentrificación y el alza en los alquileres dar atrapado por sus engranajes, para acaproblem is just too big.” Of particular significance is the loss of que han vuelto casi imposible que peque- bar convirtiéndose en una pieza más. “Mucha gente no entiende... si no han the bookstore’s Spanish language book se- ños comercios y colectivos sobrevivan. La lection, curated by their Spanish book buy- librería Modern Times, que ha anunciado visto la película”, dijo Ruth Mahaney, la er Graciela Trevisan, a professor of Latin su clausura el 15 de noviembre, es una de empleada con mayor antigüedad de la librelas últimas víctimas. ría. “Ahí están nuestras raíces: en la polítiAmerican literature. El icónico negocio siempre se ha en- ca de izquierda, el marxismo, en contra del Modern Times will be remembered as a place where readers who found themselves orgullecido de ser algo más que un lugar capital, la política anti-imperialista… Esas on the radical margins of ideological dis- donde adquirir libros. Ha operado como un maravillosas escenas de Charlie Chaplin course could find literature that resonated espacio comunitario donde los residentes atrapado en la máquina… [son] una espeintercambian el tipo de ideas revoluciona- cie de representación sobre lo que la gente with their views. “Its contributions in progressive radical rias y luchas que se han vuelto cada vez más piensa de la política”. La tienda ha tenido cuatro sedes difeliteracy and creating a space for discussion difícil conservar conforme poetas, activistas and expression will live in the hearts and y artistas de San Francisco continúan sien- rentes durante sus 45 años de historia, pero fue la tercera ubicación, en el 888 de la caminds of everyone,” said Erick Argüello, do desplazados. Esta librería fue fundada como un co- lle Valencia (de 1991 a 2011), donde empresident and co-founder of the Calle 24 lectivo en 1971, el mismo año que comenzó pezaron los problemas. Si de por sí estaba Latino Cultural District. Mahaney said that the Internet has done la librería internacional Borders. Esa cadena luchando para pagar $6,400 mensuales de amazing things for connecting people, but de tiendas, la cual llegó a operar más de 500 alquiler, cuando los propietarios solicitaron that there is still a real need for physical tiendas en los EEUU en 2010 —se declaró $10 diez mil, ello representó una cantidad en quiebra y desapareció en 2011. que un pequeño colectivo no podía solvenspaces where people can gather. Modern Times tomó su nombre de tar. “My fondest dream was that I could leave and the store would continue and una película de Charles Chaplin de 1936. Ambientada durante la Gran Depresión, la See MODERN TIMES, page 9 película fue ampliamente percibida como Vea LIBRERIA, página 9

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