Donate Books in the South Valley
Free book pickup from Barelas to the Isleta boundary, scheduled by route — or the 24/7 drop box about 15–20 minutes north.
I pick up donated books throughout the South Valley — Armijo, Atrisco, Westgate Heights, South Broadway, Mountain View, Pajarito, Valley Farms and the acequia streets along Isleta Blvd and Rio Bravo. Pickups here are often multi-generational family libraries, Spanish-language and bilingual books included.
Schedule a free South Valley pickup — I also work with attorneys and family members managing an estate from out of state.
Free In-Home Book Pickup Across the South Valley
The South Valley runs south of I-40 down through Atrisco, Armijo, and the Pajarito Mesa approach — bordered on the south by Isleta Pueblo, on the west by the escarpment, and on the east by the Rio Grande. It's the oldest continuously-settled part of the metro, with multi-generational households common on parcels that have stayed in the same family since before statehood. Drive time to the North Valley drop box at 5445 Edith NE is roughly 15–20 minutes; in-home pickup is free throughout the Valley, scheduled by route like every other metro stop.
Sub-areas served across the South Valley
I run pickups throughout Barelas (north of I-25 jct), Armijo, Atrisco, Westgate Heights, South Broadway, Sunport-adjacent neighborhoods, Mountain View, Pajarito, Valley Farms, and the acequia communities along Isleta Blvd and Rio Bravo. If you're south of I-40 and north of the Isleta Pueblo boundary, I'll come to you.
What pickups typically look like here
South Valley pickups skew toward bilingual households and multi-generational estate clear-outs. Collections here regularly include Spanish-language and bilingual children's books, parish and catechism libraries, community/neighborhood history pamphlets, and the kind of 1960s–1980s Spanish-language literature and bilingual academic material that's hard to find anywhere else in the metro. Because older South Valley homes are often cleared as part of a probate or a family-property transfer rather than a conventional downsize, I'm comfortable working through attorneys, adult children managing from out of state, and estate-sale organizers — I'll sort on site, box efficiently, and leave nothing behind.
How a South Valley pickup works
- Text or call 505-250-3804, or use the online form — tell me what you have, plus your South Valley address and roughly how many boxes.
- I schedule it by route, like every other metro stop.
- I load everything — no sorting, no boxing.
Rural South Valley addresses with dirt roads and acequia crossings are fine. Bilingual and Spanish-language children’s books go to community literacy partners and Little Free Libraries, when there’s a fit — see where donated books go.
Driving to the 24/7 Drop Box from the South Valley
About 15–20 minutes: north on 2nd Street or Isleta Blvd, or I-25 north to the Montaño Rd exit, to 5445 Edith Blvd NE. Books in any condition, plus DVDs, CDs and other media, go in the box — here’s everything I take.
What’s on South Valley Shelves
South Valley shelves are where I most reliably turn up the Chicano-movement canon, and no single author belongs here more than Jimmy Santiago Baca. Baca's 1987 Martín & Meditations on the South Valley (New Directions, American Book Award) takes its title and its spine from these acequia streets — Atrisco, Armijo, the old Isleta Blvd yards — and Baca’s books surface in South Valley estates the way Hillerman surfaces in the Heights. His Working in the Dark (1992) and A Place to Stand (2001 memoir) run the same circuit. Anything the family wants to keep stays with you.
Layered on top of Baca: Quinto Sol Press titles (Bless Me, Ultima, Tomás Rivera's ...y no se lo tragó la tierra, Rolando Hinojosa's Estampas del valle, bound runs of El Grito journal), Rudolfo Anaya in depth, Pat Mora bilingual poetry (El Paso borderlands peer to the South Valley), and the UNM Press Chicano-studies back catalog that moved through bilingual-education classrooms in the 1980s and 1990s.
Questions from South Valley Donors
Do you pick up books in the South Valley?
Yes — anywhere south of I-40 to the Isleta Pueblo boundary. Pickups are free, any condition, and scheduled by route; text 505-250-3804.
Do you take Spanish-language books?
Yes. Spanish-language and bilingual books are welcome in any condition, from prayer books to children’s books, at pickup or in the 24/7 drop box.
Clearing a South Valley Family Home?
Tell me roughly how many boxes and who to coordinate with, and your South Valley pickup goes on the route.
Schedule a free South Valley pickup →