CLA - in So Cal October 2007

My strongest impressions are from my last two days at the conference and the people I met and talked to...on Sunday I did the programming for Latino teens presentation with two true blue Latino teen librarians....

Pete from Oakland Public talked about making Day of the Dead Masks for teens honoring those that had died in their lives...and it was sad that there were so many teens that had friends about their age who had died. Martha from SFPL talked about going to talk to teen boys in the Mission district and teaching them how to cut around particular streets to avoid gangs to get to the library. It was powerful to hear this, and to know what the library has provided to some, especially with librarians like Pete and Martha who are working one on one with this underserved and sometimes feared communities.

This was contrasted with the following day that I spent with a long-time friend who now lives in L.A. and is in the television industry. She picked me up in her audi with computerized GPS and computer console built into the front panel. She gave me a tour through L.A. , Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica...it was good to see her, but I couldn't stop contrasting this experience and thinking about the population that Latino population that I had heard about -- and it felt painful to see and hear all the excess a $140 lunch for two, a celebrity culture where getting green lighted on a project is the focus -and in the meantime it is a lot about looking good, being extremely thin, well dressed, manicured and being in the right places, knowing the right people.

We live in a state with such extremes. Honestly, both lifestyles looked quite painful to me in different ways. Not having enough, or having too much and it never being enough or good enough.

My friend talked to me about Owen Wilson and said that this kind of extreme anxiety to depression happens a lot in the industry and she has experienced it herself.

I am not sure how to wrap this up, I should write about the conference inforamtion that I learned -- but our profession is about people and I learned a lot through these people I met.