During his shifts at Dog Eared Books, Daniel Meléndez moves through the shelves organizing titles, talking with customers, and ordering books for the store’s Spanish literature section. It’s full of must-read novels, some of which haven’t been translated, including “Bajar es lo peor” by the Argentine writer Mariana Enriquez.
He enjoys the casual chats and helping to curate the music the store plays throughout the day — reggae and international groups are favorites.
The bookstore — one of the oldest and most popular in the Mission District — has become more than just a job to Meléndez: it is where he found a community.
He first visited Dog Eared in 2013 — on his first day in San Francisco — and he returned during subsequent trips from Mexico City to visit a close friend.
When Meléndez ultimately moved from Mexico City to San Francisco in January of 2021, a series of fortuitous encounters led him to a job there.
By chance, he met Kate Razo, the owner of Dog Eared Books, at her second store on 24th Street — Alley Cat Books — where a Mexican and a Cuban artist had an art show. The owner of Radio Habana had recommended the exhibit, and since he barely knew anyone in the city, he decided to go. At the time, Razo was looking for someone who spoke Spanish to work at Alley Cat Books, and Meléndez took the job.
“I’ve been lucky to meet people like Kate,” Meléndez said. “Old-school San Francisco people.”
Then, in the fall of 2022, after the bookstore changed ownership, he moved to Dog Eared Books, where he has been for over three years.
“The bookstore has given me a job, friends, community, a girlfriend one time, too,” Meléndez said, adding that he even met someone at the bookstore who became a member of his band.
Once, he played matchmaker between two people he befriended at the bookstore. “They’re now married,” he said. “San Francisco has kept me. Through working at the bookstore, I just made such a tight, and nice, and really close community of friends.”
The store has been open since 1992, and Meléndez attributes its success to the location, the late closing time of 10 p.m., and its collections of new, used, and rare books.
Dog Eared Books has inspired Melendez to open his own bookstore. So, he’s considering moving back to Mexico City next fall to create a similar space, with art, music, and events for people to gather.
“Making it like a community space — that’s what really works,” he said.