Bookstore Celebration

When the Arroyo Bookstore opened a few years ago on Figueroa Street in Highland Park, it was bursting at the seams with books and other reading materials.

But after a recent move to new quarters, one of the few stores in Los Angeles concentrating on the Latino experience has a little more breathing room for its array of books, videos and recordings.

This Sunday, owners Phil Gillette and Florencia Teran will celebrate the store’s fourth anniversary and its reopening at its new location in the former Hunchback Cafe on South Avenue 57. It is twice its original size and includes an art gallery and a cafe.

The celebration, from 1 to 9 p.m., will include artists and authors from the Los Angeles area and throughout California. Visitors can browse through the store’s 10,000 titles, compete in a contest to name the store’s cafe and sip coffee free of charge.

Local artist and musician Eloy Torrez and Maria Elena Gaitan, “La Chola con Cello,” who plays during intermissions for the comedy group Culture Clash, will perform.

Other guests include poet and performance artist Luis Alfaro; Jose Montoya, poet and “commander in chief” of the Royal Chicano Air Force, an artist collective; Cal State Northridge Chicano studies professor and poet Evangeline Ordaz; writers and actors from Con Safos magazine, a literary group; part-time professor and author Charley Trujillo; Cal State Los Angeles student and poet Guadalupe Aguilar and poet Frankie Estrada accompanied by the musical group Skillet.

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Arroyo Bookstore , 125 S . Avenue 57, Highland Park . Information: (213) 259-8850.