Writing the book on community
Maria's turns the page on 40 years as hub for local culture and connection

Turns out, the death of the printed word has been greatly exaggerated. Just ask the owner of Maria’s Bookshop, Evan Schertz. The venerable downtown Durango institution celebrates 40 years this week – no small feat given small, independent booksellers began getting written off some 30 years ago.

“People have been saying small bookstores are going away since the ’90s,” Evan said this week. “Bookstores really got destroyed by Amazon and chain bookstores … the numbers just dwindled.”

But Maria’s is bucking that trend. According to Evan, the bustling store is not only surviving, it’s kicking some Amazon, uh, hardback.

“We are here after 40 years, because the community has intentionally supported an independent bookstore through all kinds of hard times and all kinds of crazy things that many bookstores didn’t survive,” said Evan. “It’s all thanks to the support of the community.”

Bear in mind, Schertz, at the age of 27, was barely out of diapers when Amazon and big box bullies like Barnes & Noble came on the book-selling scene. But, he speaks with an introspection and wisdom that belies his Gen Z birth ranking. Maybe that is because books are in his blood. His parents, Peter Schertz and Andrea Avantaggio, owned the store for about 20 years prior to selling it to Evan in 2019.

Perhaps the greatest example of community support during Evan’s time at the helm was during the pandemic – which struck less than a year into his tenure. As luck would have it, the store was already scheduled to close down for a few weeks for a remodel in the spring of 2020. Of course, as these things go, the remodel ended up taking two months, so there was a bit of serendipity.

“It actually worked out really well,” said Evan of the forced closure.

And when Maria’s was back open for business, it was buoyed by the support of its diehard local fans. “It was so heart-warming and impressive to see how customers supported us and wanted to engage,” Evan said. For a while, when congregating in indoor public spaces was frowned upon, Evan would deliver books to people by bike and leave them on their front porches.

“People were really intentional about supporting us,” he said. 

Evan said Maria’s is not an outlier in respect to community support, either. Small independent bookstores across the country have been experiencing a rebirth of late, particularly due to the support of communities that value such an amenity, he said. According to the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association, group membership has grown 30% since 2020.

“There’s been a real resurgence in the last decade,” Evan said. “Most of those stores that are opening – there are a lot in cities – but there are a lot in small towns. I think part of it was around the pandemic, when a lot of communities had to rethink their values and rethink where the heart of the community was. And that’s what a bookstore can be. A lot of communities didn’t have one, and that’s when somebody realized that they needed one.”

For Durango, the realization that the town needed a small independent bookstore came in 1984 when Dusty Teal opened Maria’s down the street from its current location, in the spot now occupied by Eureka Dan’s. In 1994, when the store outgrew that spot, it moved to its current location at 960 Main Ave., which offers 2,200 square feet of retail space. As Maria’s lore goes, Teal (who, BTW, is rumored to be the basis for Edward Abbey’s character Seldom Seen) employed the help of friends to shlep the books down the street.

“There’s some great old photos of them moving all the books … they just wheelbarrowed all the books down to the new store,” said Evan.

It was around this time that Evan’s mom, Andrea, started working for Teal. When word got out that Teal, who now lives outside Mancos, was ready to sell, Andrea approached him about buying it.

“Dusty said, ‘Yeah, you and Peter should buy it,’” recalled Evan.

Evan Schertz

The two eventually bought the store in 1998, keeping the name which was a tribute to New Mexican pottery artist Maria Martinez. The store’s bird logo pays homage to Martinez (although you would not be faulted if you thought for years, as I did, that Andrea was the “Maria” in Maria’s.)

After 20 years, Peter and Andrea were eyeing retirement and approached Evan about buying the family business. But at the time, he was at Colorado School of Mines studying mechanical engineering – a far cry from bookstore proprietorship – and thought he was going to become an engineer. 

“I was never interested in buying it, and neither was my sister,” Evan said.

However, like any good story, the more he thought about the proposal, the more intrigued he became. After college, disenchanted with engineering, he started entertaining the idea more seriously.

“It turns out – nothing against engineers – but it was just not what I was into. It didn’t feel like it was going to do it for me,” he said.

After talking with a friend, he decided to take his parents up on their offer. 

“I realized it was an incredible opportunity,” he said. “It just took me a while to get up the confidence to bring it back up with my parents, because I knew once I did, there was no turning back.”

And fortunately for us book lovers and purveyors of solitude out there, he has no plans to turn back. Although there has been a learning curve in running the store, Evan said he enjoys the challenge and variety the job offers. “There’s always something new to try or a problem to solve.”

But the best part, he said, is getting to engage with the community and people who walk in Maria’s door to peruse the towering wooden stacks. He also gives huge props to his dedicated staff of 20 booksellers and longtime righthand gals, Julie Shimada and Jeanne Costello.

“Every day is special,” Evan said.

From hosting book signings and donating to nonprofit fund-raisers to selling the works of local authors on its shelves, Maria’s also strives to pay it forward.

“We think of our inventory as reflective of the community’s interest,” Evan said. “You can come in and see what other people are reading.”

Because when it comes down to it, books are all about connection.

“Our mission has always been to enrich life through books. Maria’s is a place to find a connection to the community in so many ways, from running into friends in the store to having a great conversation with a bookseller or browsing the shelves.”

And hopefully, it will be that connection and enrichment that allows Maria’s to continue to thumb its nose at the Amazons and Barnes & Nobles of the world for another 40 years.

“There has been a real awareness over the last decade about community values and the value of places like bookstores, coffee shops and libraries and what those can offer,” said Evan. “That’s true for every independent bookstore in the whole country. It takes a community that values what the bookstore provides.” 

For more info., follow @mariasbookshop or visit www.mariasbookshop.com.