By Roberto Haro
American libraries whether they are public, academic, or specialized collect and organize data and information on a broad range of topics and interests. With respect to literature, especially writings that focus on America and its people, their holdings reinforce the interests and priorities set by the library’s policy makers. However, it has been a bitter experience over the years that the writings by and about people of color were not systematically purchased, cataloged and preserved by many types of libraries.
The Civil Rights movement in the 1950s triggered an important transformation. Scholars, informed laymen, and other readers began to ask librarians to identify literature about the unique experience of people of color, focusing mainly on blacks, and gradually other minority groups in America and soon black writers, poets and essayists were “discovered and re-discovered,” and became popular. But there were challenges to black literature, as books like Soul on Ice (1968) by Eldridge Cleaver, The Autobiography of Malcom X (Grove Press: 1968), and even the classic work The Fire Next Time (Dial Press: 1963) by James Baldwin were considered subversive and un-American by conservatives until the American public decided they wanted to read them.
Soon, literature by and about blacks was prepared for distribution by traditional publishers and book sellers to promote a new awareness of stories and studies about black experiences and contributions to American literature. American libraries added new writings to complement those already in their collections. However, Latino literature in the US posed different challenges for librarians. (Latino will encompass Chicano, Hispanic, Hispano, Raza, and other terms that define Latinos in the US.)
Literary accounts of Latinos in America were not as easy to capture as black writings. Numerous factors complicated the identification of literature about the Latino experience in this country. Latinos are a heterogeneous group in our population that includes Hispanos in New Mexico settling there before Northern Europeans established permanent settlements along the Atlantic Seaboard. Other Latino groups, particularly people of Mexican origin, lived in the territory in the Southwest conquered by the US after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).
Language was also a challenge. Mainly, Latinos spoke Spanish and used that language instead of English to tell their stories. Some groups, like Cubans, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans use different terms and code words that differentiated them from Hispanos and Mexican Americans. Moreover, many important stories about the Latino experience in the US, particularly in the southwest, are part of an oral and musical tradition, and are told in a Latino argot called Caló that combines English, Spanish and Native American terms. These, and other factors, made the identification and capture of this literature challenging. Yet, scholars, librarians and informed laymen continued to search for ways to capture the essence of the Latino experience in this country.
The soul of a society is often found in its literary expressions, whether in print, or as part of an oral tradition. As many parts of early Latino literature were in an oral tradition and not committed to scholarly narratives, it was difficult for librarians to identify and procure them, particularly the different information types and formats. Moreover, there were few, if any, literary guides and reliable bibliographies that provided a structured way to approach and assess Latino literary expressions.
As a result, a few progressive librarians began to reach out to Latino scholars, teachers, and writers. While intelligence gathered from these informed sources was helpful, it did not fully meet the needs of many librarians. The more progressive ones wanted access to the primary sources, and to establish links with people who produced Latino literature, and were knowledgeable about it.
There were also risks involved in collecting some Latino literature because of its language and thematic orientation. Several prominent Latino writers wrote in English that was heavily laced with Spanish terms difficult for English only readers to understand. A few poets, like Alurista, used Caló to dramatize their stories, using a creative panoply of colorful terms to underscore their messages. Again, many conservative groups and leaders considered such literary output distasteful, gauche, and undesirable. They looked with trepidation on what Oscar Zeta Acosta wrote in his novel, The Revolt of the Cockroach People (Knopf: 1973), and railed against such writings as inflammatory, subversive and un-American. And when Librarians invited controversial Latino writers to meet with community groups and library patrons to comment on the themes they used to explore the Latino experience in the US, there was a definite backlash.
When Latino poets and writers like Alurista, Gary Soto and Raul Salinas were prevented from speaking at libraries, they shared their poems and stories at small conferences and Latino gatherings, such as the popular Flor y Canto series. Meanwhile, other writers like Rudolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, and Rolando Hinojosa were identified and published by traditional US presses. But for Latino writers not courted by American publishers, their literary works appeared in small, local and ephemeral sources. Mainly these were weekly or monthly publications like El Tecolote in the San Francisco Bay area, or Con Safos in Los Angeles. Latino scholars like Rudy Acuña, at California State University, Northridge, did begin writing academic treatises that provided well documented historical accounts of Latinos in the US, but he also knew Latino poets, essayists and writers and shared their work with colleagues and students. Some novelists like Arturo Islas, Victor Villaseñor, and Sandra Cisneros were part of an important literary trend that led to the identification of other Latina and Latino writers. Among them were, to name but a few, Pat Mora, Cherie Moraga, Nicholasa Mohr, Oscar Hijuelos, Julia Alvarez, and the popular raconteur Piri Thomas. Thomas, in particular, was a breath of fresh air for librarians because he enjoyed talking with different audiences about his experiences and writings, and especially his seminal work, Down These Mean Streets (Signet Books: 1967). It is interesting to note that Thomas’ book and now Bless Me, Ultima (Quinto Sol: 1972) by Rudolfo Anaya are banned in several American communities.
The identification and preservation of US Latino writings became a priority for many socially conscious librarians who took risks to make these materials available to readers. While scholarly library sections at the Library of Congress, and major university libraries were acquiring the works of famous writers in Central and South America they paid scant attention to the writing and oral stories about the Latino experience in the US. A few research libraries, such as the Nettie Lee Benson Mexican American collection at the University of Texas, Austin, and the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, collected valuable resource materials to preserve important historical parts of the Latino experience in this country. However, the holdings in these and other research collections were not well known, or easily accessible to most readers. The restiveness caused by the Civil Rights Movement, and the political activism of Latinos, particularly the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s and 1970s, led to academic and public librarians finally using regular library resources to collect valuable resource materials, including literature, about the US Latino experience. It is important to recognize the strategies some Chicano faculty, staff and student activists in higher education used to identify and collect critical resources about Latinos in America.
Latino teaching and research groups at three major universities developed “specialized” libraries that contributed to the identification and collection of primary sources of materials, including US Latino literary works. In California, the Ethnic Studies Program at Berkeley and the Chicanos Studies Research Center at UCLA established library collections to capture primary sources about Latinos in America, especially literary works. Stanford University developed a program to acquire critical materials on Latinos in the US, but made it a part of their regular library system.
UCLA and Berkeley’s specialized collections were not part of the main library’s holding. The collections at UCLA and Berkeley were affiliated with research groups or academic teaching programs at the respective campuses, and quickly became widely used by faculty and students. While their book budgets were limited, they were not fettered by conventional acquisition and cataloging procedures that prevented many libraries from accessing ephemeral and nonprint materials. The librarians responsible for these collections, Roberto Cabello Argandoña at UCLA and Richard Chabran at Berkeley, were creative and resourceful professionals who developed appropriate schemes and strategies to acquire pertinent materials, catalog and make them available by using traditional and some inventive forms of intellectual access.
The interest in Latino literature by academic librarians at the major research campuses in Texas and California was gradually matched by public libraries with increasing populations of Latinos in their service areas. The awakening of “the sleeping giant,” a metaphor used to identify the rapidly increasing Latino population in the US, encouraged some progressive public librarians to do two things: find out how to collect significant literature about the Latino experience, and learn more about the writers responsible for this literature.
Latina/o Writers
As Latino men and women writers began to publish poetry, essays and novels, some like Piri Thomas enjoyed speaking at various library meetings, conferences and colloquia. Consonant with the established oral tradition among Latinos, other writers joined Thomas in speaking at libraries and library conferences where they provided a unique perspective on a burgeoning minority community gradually represented across most of America.
Librarians began to learn about Latino writers from colleagues in national organizations like the American Library Association, and by word of mouth and public announcements that highlighted presentations featuring Latino literature. It was not long before a handful of informed librarians, mainly Latinas and Latinos began to systematically identify promising Latino writers. However, there were writers who stayed within their genre, such as poets and essayists, interacting infrequently with novelists and academic nonfiction authors. (For the purposes of this essay, the focus will be on Latina and Latino fiction writers. Considerable attention has been devoted elsewhere to Latina/o poets.)
Latino non-fiction writers, many of them teaching and doing research at American colleges and universities, taught classes on Latino literature, had to publish essays and books in scholarly journals and academic presses to receive tenure and keep their teaching positions. Fortunately many of these scholars interacted regularly with recognized and promising new Latino writers, and introduced them and their writings to students and faculty colleagues.
So why focus on Latino fiction writers? There is much about the diverse Latino culture in America that has not been adequately presented and discussed by Latino scholars and informed laypersons in nonfiction stories and books. Scholars devote attention to primary sources and scrupulous documentation that often makes what they write appear detached from the rich dynamic interplay of people, ideas and the range of emotions within different Latino communities.
Scholars, for the most part, write academic treatises that must stand the test of their peers, and in doing so, what they prepare may seem esoteric and sanitized. Some scholars avoid exploring the interpersonal relationships and passions that motivate people to behave the way they do because of perceived normative academic standards. The interactions in Latino families, peer groups, gangs, and romantic relationships reveal discords, frictions, love and accommodations are difficult to explore in an academic treatise for numerous reasons, but most often peer pressure that insists on academic standards that eschew things that are difficult to document or “unscholarly.”
But in literature, and especially short stories and novels, the writer is free to explore what motivates Latinos to think and behave the way they do. It is in this literature that the soul of a society can be examined and explored, and shared with others to better understand differences and similarities among American Latino communities and the larger society.
The collection of novels and works of fiction by Latina and Latino writers, therefore, is a priority for anyone wanting to know about Latinos in the US. However, collecting this type of literature poses challenges for some libraries and librarians. To understand and appreciate these complications, it is important to look at the types of libraries and the role of librarians responsible for making available Latino fiction.
In certain library settings, there is a desirable consonance between the library’s policy for acquiring fiction and the librarian’s role in identifying pertinent materials and making them known and available to the clientele. However, in some libraries, mainly academic and specialized, there is a low priority assigned to collecting and making available Latino literature.
In such libraries, even though the librarian plays the pivotal role in finding appropriate materials, acquiring and making them available to readers, the written policy governing the purchase of library materials, or campus executives who apply standards that limit the acquisition of Latino writings are determinative, and complicate matters. To understand the challenges and opportunities for collecting Latino literary works and fiction, the contributions of librarians at three different types of libraries will be discussed.
Academic/Specialized Libraries
Because most Latinos attend two-year colleges, it is important to examine whether or not these institutions and their libraries are developing Latino literature collections. Rather than engage in a lengthy and tedious survey, it was decided to speak with a few library leaders at community colleges and learn first-hand what they and their colleagues experienced. These librarians quickly mentioned similar challenges, such as a low priority attached to Latino literature by traditional campus faculty, and senior campus administrators’ ambivalence toward anything other than the works of a few Latino writers like Isabel Allende or Richard Rodriguez.
To achieve an overview of Latino library collections at a two-year campus, a highly regarded Latino library leader, John Ayala, was consulted. Ayala has been a strong, long time spokesperson lobbying for improved access to sources of information on Latinos. He began his career as a bookmobile driver for the Long Beach Public Library in 1963. After serving in Vietnam with the Air Force, he earned his Masters of Library Science at the Immaculate Heart College in 1971 and worked for the Los Angeles County Library before becoming Director of the Long Beach City College, Pacific Coast Campus. In 1990 he moved to Fullerton College as Dean of the Library and Learning Resource Center. He retired in 2006, but is still active in his profession.
Ayala and several other progressive librarians banded together in 1971 to found REFORMA, an affiliate of the American Library Association. Developed to improve library and information services for Latinos in the US, it promotes the development of collections to include Spanish-language and Latino oriented materials; the recruitment of bilingual and bicultural library professionals and support staff; the development and preservation of library programs and activities for the Latino community; and, lobbying efforts to educate people about the availability and types of library resources on Latinos and how to use them. Ayala was President of REFORMA from 1974 to 1976.
Ayala is direct, but tactful, about the mixed forms of support and hesitation at some two-year colleges to acquire and promote Latino literature, particularly on campuses with large Latino student enrollments. To overcome some of these challenges, he and other talented Latino library professionals have worked diligently to better inform campus administrators, faculty, and Latino community groups and people about these resources. In conjunction with Salvador Güereña, an accomplished and widely respected Latino archivist, librarian and author at the University of California, Santa Barbara, they co-edited Pathways to Progress, Issues & Advances in Latino Librarianship (ABC-CLIO Press: 2011).
Güereña, also a past President of REFORMA, and Ayala prepared this anthology to share best practices for improving library and information services for Latinos. Sections in the anthology focus on collecting library materials by and about Latino writers. Despite the efforts of dedicated librarians like Ayala, Güereña, and others to develop better Latino collections, a long educational process to convince many faculty and administrators at two-year colleges about the value of Latino literature remains.
Turning to the major university research libraries, especially ones with highly specialized collections like the University of Texas at Austin, is informative. Research university libraries have always been considered key repositories for critical resources. But as mentioned earlier, Latino literary output was not always in these collections.
Margo Gutierrez, an accomplished Latina Librarian, has played a key role in the University of Texas at Austin libraries as Mexican American and Latino Studies librarian. A native of Tucson, Arizona, she earned the B.A. and M.L.S. degrees from the University of Arizona and an M.A. in Latin American Studies at UT Austin. She worked at the University of Arizona Library and the Blumberg Memorial Library of Texas Lutheran College before joining the UT Austin General Libraries and becoming a valuable asset and resource person within the Nettie Lee Benson Library.
A highly accomplished librarian and writer, Margo has numerous publications to her credit, among them The Border Guide: Institutions and Organizations of the United States-Mexico Borderlands(CMAS Books, 1992), co-authored with Milton Jamail, and the Encyclopedia of Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (Greenwood, 2000), co-authored with Matt S. Meier. In 2000 she was named Librarian of the Year by REFORMA, and in 2001 the UT Libraries at Austin honored her with their Library Excellence Award.
The Benson Library is home to the annual event series A Viva Voz that celebrates Latino arts and culture. Through this and similar efforts that bring writers, researchers and visitors to the library, Margo has helped to feature graphic novelists, playwrights, painters, and photographers. Her focus and experience identifying and collecting the works of Latino writers in the US reflect a depth of knowledge that is unique and extremely valuable. Margo’s approach is to find the best resources to understand and appreciate the experience of Latinos in the US, and underscores the value of literature for anyone studying their history in this country.
While there are other major Latin American collections in the US, most of them devote attention to writers and literature about Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. The Benson Collection is special in acquiring and making available the writings of Latinos born and raised in the US, such as its Mexican American materials. Only recently have American university research libraries started to pay attention to domestic Latino writers and novelists, and much of the credit for this sea change is because of Margo and many of her library colleagues throughout the country.
Margo has networked with her colleagues in both academic and public libraries to encourage the use of new technologies and access guides to Latino literature. The rapid shift to hand held devices that allow potential readers to locate materials at libraries is a boon—as are eBooks—but also a limitation for communities and individuals without these devices, or unable for any number of reasons to use the internet. Margo’s concern to reduce technical barriers that inhibit Latino access to materials and services they want is progressive and commendable. She and colleagues like Roberto Trujillo at Stanford University, Ron Rodriguez at Cal State Fullerton, Susana Hinojosa at UC Berkeley, and others have worked diligently, and continue to lobby for improved techniques to find and use Latino literary works in university and college libraries, regardless of their format.
Public Libraries
There are numerous public Librarians who can be singled out for the outstanding contributions to their respective communities. Elizabeth Martinez, Director of the Salinas Public Library in California comes to mind immediately. She has been an outstanding leader in librarianship, serving as the Library Director for the Los Angeles Public library, a respected college teacher, the Executive Director of the American Library Association, and an indefatigable advocate for the development of library services and facilities to meet the needs of expanding communities, especially those with increasing numbers of Latinos.
She was responsible for introducing Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez, the author of the epic poem I Am Joaquin (1967), to an audience of rapt listeners at an American Library Association Conference. Corky is considered one of the founding leaders of the Chicano Movement in the US. Others following in Elizabeth’s steps are Ben Ocon in San Mateo, California, and Luis Herrera in San Francisco, both directors of their respective libraries. However, it was decided to focus on Carmen Martinez because of her dedication to changing library systems and orientations to provide improved services, especially to Latinos.
Technological change has significantly influenced how information is packaged, organized, stored, accessed and disseminated. The computer and the internet are now critical paths to information people want. Public libraries must have computers, internet access, and eBooks to meet the demands of their clientele. However, many older libraries lacked the space and technological infrastructure to provide the new information services library patrons wanted, and their budgets were not sufficient to adopt the new technology and build the proper facilities to house and maintain it. So, over the last three decades, the challenges for public libraries, especially with respect to Latinos, have been to adopt new technologies, serve a new group of patrons, and find ways to collect significant materials about their experience in America. It was also vital for public libraries to have space where community groups could meet, and where artists, scholars, painters and writers could visit to share their ideas and perspectives. These, then, were some of the challenges facing library leaders like Carmen Martinez.
Carmen grew up in Glendale, CA, earned her B.A. from Cal State Hayward, now called Cal State East Bay, studied Language at the University of Barcelona, and earned a Master in Library Science from CSU Fullerton. In 2000, she was recruited to Oakland, CA from the Los Angeles Central Library, and hired by then Mayor Jerry Brown. The challenges in Oakland were considerable, and there had not been a library director for three years. She spearheaded a campaign in 2004 for a tax increase that generates about $14 million annually for the libraries.
In 2011 she won another budget battle called “Save our Libraries” that prevented the closure of 14 branch libraries. Martinez was responsible for the opening of the 15,000 square-foot Cesar Chavez branch in the predominantly Latino Fruitvale neighborhood. That library was once a tiny part of the lobby of the Spanish Unity Council building. Now it houses the largest Spanish language collection in Northern California, a free community meeting room always in use, and the first TeenZone designed with input from teens in the community.
Carmen, often mentions the amazing technological changes brought about by the computer, the internet and hand held devices to access and retrieve information. While she is an avid reader and claims to take a book to bed with her every night, she also knows the importance of establishing and nourishing an eBook collection. She talks about having artists, musicians and writers come to the library to speak, share ideas and talk about their works. She considers this an important link between the creators of literature and its consumers.
Regardless of the subject’s format, whether a book, a piece of music, a sculpture, or a poem, it takes on a new meaning when the artist is there to engage an audience and discuss her reasons for its creation. She believes such conversations generate an accepting and learning atmosphere that continues to draw people to the library. The literature of a people enlightens their ideas, perspectives, likes, dislikes and aspirations. So in this sense, Carmen believes that having Latino literary works is imperative, but finding ways to bring library patrons together to learn more about themselves and other Latinos is a priority. Carmen retired in 2011.
Leadership and Creativity
Latino librarians have played a largely unheralded role in finding, organizing, protecting, and disseminating the rich literary expression about the Latino experience in America. If not for them, an enormously valuable body of knowledge essential to understand our country’s history might be lost, or unavailable. Yet, challenges remain in certain types of libraries, and in the preparation of librarians.
While public libraries have benefitted enormously from talented and successful Latino leaders, that has not been the case at college and university libraries, especially at selective four-year liberal arts campuses and major research universities. There are few Latino librarians who have been academic library directors. Among this very select group is William Aguilar who served as the director of libraries at Lamar Community College, Pikesville College, Central Connecticut State University, and California State University, San Bernardino before he become a vice president for development at CSUSB. A library director plays a pivotal role in developing priorities, allocating funding, and finding support for the projects she wants.
The director of a public library can focus attention on improved services to different groups, especially those who have not been marginalized, or ignored. Public library leaders like Carmen Martinez and Elizabeth Martinez used their leadership positions to build new facilities and establish programs that captured critical Latino resources. They made it a priority to interface writers and readers in a friendly environment that enhanced the awareness of the Latino experience in America.
The same is possible at college and university libraries, but different factors have created obstacles on these campuses to recruit and appoint Latinos to head their library systems. At best, major academic libraries have employed some of the most talented Latina librarians to work as specialists responsible for acquiring and making available valuable Latino literary resources. But somehow the major higher education and library associations in America have not focused sufficient energy and commitment to prepare, groom and employ Latinas and Latinos as library directors at US campuses. Without the assistance of Latino leadership in academic libraries, progress in capturing and making available a rich literature that will play a compelling role in understanding our nation’s composition and development will be slow and in some cases limited.
Another challenge is the limited number of Latinas and Latinos attending schools of library and information services for careers as librarians. As the Latino population continues to increase in absolute numbers and as a percentage of our population, they require library and information services. Programs that recruit talented Latino females and males to schools of library and information services need to be developed and operationalized. Without a continuing source of new librarians, many of the gains by Latino librarians and others will remain static, or perhaps lose ground.
A few final words about the role of Latino librarians and their contributions to the preservation of a literature instrumental to understanding and appreciating the historical role of the Latino community in our nation. It is difficult to imagine who, other than librarians, would diligently and against difficult odds, work assiduously to ensure that a unique literature was captured, preserved and made available to a widening audience of readers. As Latinos continue to increase in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the American population, more needs to be known about them and their contributions to our society.
Their literature provides invaluable access routes to who they are, what they believe, and what motivates them to act and behave as they do. Librarians provide not only the resources, but the environments and intellectual access tools that tap the valuable repositories of materials needed to understand and appreciate this significant segment of our society.
The interface between writers and readers fomented by the efforts of librarians is one of the most valuable educational experiences available in our society, and for the most part, it is free. Latino librarians have faced numerous challenges, taken professional risks, and worked long and hard to achieve the successes they have. One of their most significant achievements has been to preserve Latino literature, and make it a living part of our nation’s cultural narrative. They have gone directly to the creators of the literature and devised ways for all of us to better understand, appreciate and enjoy who we are as Latinos and Americans.
Roberto Haro, with a long history as a university administrator, is a novelist and essayist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. To the other insightful essays he has contributed to “Somos en escrito,” he adds this important statement. His latest novel is titled, Alejandro’s Story, which is available from the usual online and retail outlets.