A few days ago arrived in Arizona… and one of my first stops was a place called McDowell Market. 

McDowell Market is a small organic, local and specialty foods market in Central Phoenix. They offer a unique environment which includes an espresso bar (Shug Coffee), book store (Palabras Book Store), and  a gift shop (Galeana 39) . The food market offer sbulk foods such as beans, rice, quinoa, and spices along with organic local in-season produce, gluten free options.

As you can imagine, I gravitated to Palabras to set up office for the day and have a conversation with the owner Rosie Magraña.

Palabras provides the Phoenix community with books in Spanish and English with an emphasis on diverse cultural representation of authors and social awareness. Palabras is much more than a bookstore. It is a safe and encouraging environment for inter-cultural community exchange, providing the community with opportunities to share literary, visual and musical art through workshops and events.