BEST SPANISH-LANGUAGE BOOKSTORE

While hard-line Cubans still own the political section -- a map of Cuba from 1902-1958 (when history of the island apparently stopped); the "secret" lives of Castro and the Sandinistas; a biography of the benevolent Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet -- the rest of the store is exemplary. It has ten titles of Jorge Luis Borges side by side with translations of Perry Mason. There are also cooking, fishing, and song books, including one of Carlos Mejia Godoy, the Sandinista songwriter -- oops! Browse a little more and find self-help (Deepak Chopra), Spanish legal dictionaries, and test-rep books (mostly in English). For the gringos and gringo-wannabes, there's also an English section. If you're just beginning to learn Spanish, try the political section -- it's about a third-grade level.