Best of 2001: Best Bicultural Bookstore

Libreria Latino Americana
539 H Street, Chula Vista
619-427-7867

Don Jose Figueroa's place has everything you need, from fine editions of Don Quixote to Spanish for Dummies. And for fun learning, books you already know in English, like Tom Clancy's Dueda de Honor, or windows into Mexican pop-culture like Guadalupe Loaeza's biting Manual for the Well-To-Do, which opens the can on Mexico City's oh-so-high society. Or -- and this is probably your best move -- Spanish-language kids' books. He has hundreds. Figueroa, who has "worked with books since I was 15," used to be a publisher in Mexico City. His bookstore (open ten years) has hundreds of textbooks and CDs and tapes to learn English or Spanish.