Because so many people kept asking us for lists of the best movies, books, poems, records, or films, and because it seems like everyone is perpetually learning Spanish. The social worker living across the hall, the Hungarian exchange student who just arrived in the US to find that one out of every four people is not a gringo, somebody's grandmother who fell in love with Isabel Allende and can't get enough... We first thought of writing a book, then a blog, but finally asked ourselves why not a store? There are already incredible resources out there, and we figured that it just needed a bit of rhyme and reason. So, for all intents and purposes these are our lists of the best of the best.

Jeff Bezos, the guy who runs Amazon, is our fourth partner (silent, we've never met him). He actually charges and delivers the merchandise, and will politely handle your returns if need be (in our personal experience he really delivers on the customer service end, the main reason to work with him). We get a little commission for every single purchase, and that's that.

Write us at 3amigos@thespanishstore.com... If enough people get interested, we'll start a forum on the merits and demerits of our lists (ouch, that could get hectic!).