Author and bookstore owner Denise Chávez declared to the universe she would write

There aren’t many places where you can walk into a bookstore and meet a best-selling author and icon who has won national awards and even has her own Wikipedia page.

In Las Cruces, that place is Casa Camino Real Bookstore, 314 S. Tornillo St., and the author and icon is Denise Chávez, whose bestsellers include “A Taco Testimony: Meditations on Family, Food and Culture,” “The Last of the Menu Girls,” “Face of An Angel,” “Loving Pedro Infante” and “The King and Queen of Comezón.” Her most recent book is “Street of Too Many Stories,” published in 2024.

Casa Camino Real Bookstore & Art Gallery is at the early stages of change, Chavez told the Bulletin. She announced a sale this week to reduce inventory in response to a rent increase.

She said the bookstore isn’t closing anytime soon but she is downsizing with an eye toward closing in the future. When she does close the bookstore, Chavez said she’d like to open a cultural resource center.

Chávez’s short story, “Big Calzones,” is included in the book “Las Christmas: Favorite Latino Authors Share Their Holiday Memories.” The story, read by Chávez, is replayed every holiday season on Latino USA radio.

Chávez also wrote the introduction to the 50^th anniversary edition of the highly acclaimed novel “Bless Me Ultima,” written in 1972 by her friend and mentor, Rudolfo Anaya.

It was Anaya who helped Chávez decide on a career path. She had written “Menu Girls,” a short-story collection, while she was still Anaya’s student at the University of New Mexico.

He asked her, “Are you going to be a writer, or what?”

With that prompting, “I declared myself to the universe,” Chávez said. “I’m going to be a writer.”

Since her first book was published in 1986, Chávez has won the American Book Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature, the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and UNM’s Paul Bartlett Ré Peace Prize. The City of Las Cruces proclaimed Nov. 21, 2017 Denise Chávez Day. Chávez created the Border Book Festival that was a popular annual event in Las Cruces and Mesilla for more than 20 years.

Today, at age 76, in a bookstore located just a few minutes’ walk from where she grew up, “I’m still trying to find out what that path is,” Chávez said. “I’m a writer. I write. I’m also a bookseller. More than that, I’m a community activist.”

Among the many books at Casa Camino Real, Chávez has wrapped some in colorful paper to disguise their titles and authors. Each one has a label listing its genre and first sentence. Chávez often gives them away to start “A Blind Date with a Book.”

“Some things you can sell and some you have to give away,” she said.

Chávez is looking for a space in Las Cruces to open a Museo de la Gente (“Museum of the People”) to be “an archival center, preserving “our history, culture, music and food,” she said.

“I grew up in this place. I am a stayer,” Chávez said. “I believe in the story of this place, the history of who we are.”

A quote credited to French singer and lyricist Edith Piaf is a mantra for Chávez: "When you've reached the top, send the elevator back down for the others."

“That’s what life is about. That’s what we need right now,” she said.

“You have to deflect darkness,” Chávez said. “I’m still here, going at it. But you better come and see me soon. The time is now.”