LibroMobile

LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC) is a small sized, hybrid nonprofit organization established in 2016 by local author Sarah Rafael García in Santa Ana, California. It was initiated through support from its fiscal agent Red Salmon Arts, a partner hybrid nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas, and a five thousand dollar Investing in the Arts Grant by the City of Santa Ana. Although started with a minimal amount of funding, the hybrid nonprofit organization serves as the only literary arts cultural center for approximately 300K+ residents in the City of Santa Ana of which 80% are Latina/o/x as part of Orange County that is 60% people of color.

Over the first two years, LMAC tended the community as a curbside vendor selling books and hosting free literary readings and workshops via partnerships with established art spaces, local businesses, national literary grants to pay writers, and special public events. Since 2017, it has been housed at three different brick-and-mortar venues: the first being a public stairway that served as a temporary space for 11 months funded by a patron, the second a 190sqft warehouse in downtown Santa Ana that consisted of annual lease renewals from January 2018 through December 2021 paid by profits. During the stay home mandate, LMAC acquired a second fiscal agent, MA Series Arts, to be able to apply to state-funded grants for sustainability.

Since COVID19 reopening in June 2021, downtown Santa Ana has seen an exponential increase in commercial festivals and business initiatives, which alienated the bookstore and led to a decrease of accessibility to the locals and book sales. After relentless advocacy, Garcia was forced to seek an alternative space in order for LMAC to maintain a presence in the community and pay book advisors who continue to consist of local youth and artists-of-color. As of January 2022, LMAC moved to its third location, a storefront next to one of the last standing indoor swapmeets. LMAC continues to be mobile while sustaining general operating costs at the new venue established as a bookstore gallery. One organizational goal is to reinvest profits into the local artists-of-color and business economy. Over the years LMAC has fulfilled García’s mission of “cultivating diversity through literature and the arts” to the residents of Santa Ana and Orange County. Today (2022), LMAC is focusing more than ever on audience engagement, placemaking, and book sales to increase assets, while seeking to expand its reach beyond the city as an established BIPOC-led museum and cultural center in Orange County and institute a new mission statement. For a documented timeline of LMAC history.