A write up on the CLA Latino Teen Program & other stuff

[Services_to_latinos] CLA Annual Conference Roundtable Meeting
listserv email Fri 11/2/2007

Jacqueline Ayala wrote:
¡Saludos a todos!

It was wonderful to see so many individuals at the conference.

As you may know, I live and work in San Diego. Our esteemed colegas,
José Aponte (San Diego County Library Director) and Patrick Suillivan
(San Diego State Univesity Business Librarian, REFORMA Chair of INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Committee and LIBROS Treasurer) were unable to attend or called back home from CLA (respectively) due to the Wlidfires catastrophe that we experienced.

Cynthia Smith chaired the roundtable meeting on Saturday afternoon. You took the reins last year when it was so very crucial ! A controversy regarding Ken Burns' The War surfaced in the Fall and as the Services to Latino Roundtable chair you were attempting to communicate as much information as possible.

Thank you for your efforts and maintainence of the SLRT in 2007. And for not expending any of our funds which remain somewhere in the $250 range. Present also at the meeting was special guest, Camila Alire, from Colorado who visited to speak to CA library workers about her campaign for national office.

I attended the presentation "If you invite them,They Will Come...Y Ahora Que? Teens in the Library" sponsored by this Roundtable. Kudos first and foremost to Martha Arroyo-Neves, Pete Villaseñor and Ida daRoza for your work and success in serving our youth.

The workshop you gave was so good. People stayed afterwards to speak to each panelist and Martha especially fulfilled what she set out to do back in Sacramento last year. Mil gracias! The audience was not disappointed.

Our next two chairs were selected at the SLRT meeting on Saturday. Ida Z. (San Mateo County Library) will serve next, and Yvonne Tello (Ventura County) will assist in order to take over in 2009. I look forward to the future and admire that both of you will be leading us in activities and direction.

I know there is so much more to discuss--so please do not hesitate to respond.

Sincerely,
Jacqueline

ida's note
Well, I don't think the info is quite right about me being chair - I remember that it was suggested that Yvonne and I co-chair, but I was going to talk to her about chairing and I could give her support...we'll have to work that one out...

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.

CLA Teen Program on Salsa Dancing

Sunday I will be do a Latino teen program with Pete Villasenor and Marta Neves -- unfortunately it is the same time as the Chinese Banquet. It is called make the program, y ahora que.

This clip should share a little flavor of the topic.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Expo in Ahmadinejad's Iran showcases avant-garde art

I saw this photo of an installation art piece and it just took my breath away! It is an AFP photo.

The quote on yahoo said- An Iranian woman gazes at an installation entitled "Apocalypse" created by Iranian artist, Behrouz Darash, at Tehran's museum of contemporary art in September 2007, during the "Manifestations of Contemporary Art in Iran"

Isabel Allende - super awesome!

Came back from Isabel Allende tonight in conversation with Michael Krasney. A superstar interviewer and interviewee...The time really flew by - Isabel was super sassy and talked about how she bagged her husband and confessed her dream lust for Antonio Banderas (on a a tortilla with avocado on top!).

My favorite line was that she said that she wrote Daughter of Fortune as an homage to the utopia that San Francisco is to her -- and also that she wanted to write a book about California history from the view point of person of color and most importantly - a woman of color.

Another interesting caveat is that she said that she imagines and writes only in Spanish. When she was doing a press conference in Spain about this book -- a journalist pointed out that Eliza in the Daughter of Fortune was really an autobiography of her life...she hadn't seen it but she did leave a prim Victorian life for the freedom of the SF Bay Area...also, like Eliza - she entered a man's world in that the field of Spanish Literature is dominated by men. She said that she came after the golden age of most of the Spanish writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz etc. but that she outsold all of them -- part of the outselling she owes to Oprah who she said picked her book for her book club.

She said Oprah is the most important person in the whole literary world and the reason why she wrote Portrait in Sepia...she said, Oprah didn't like the ending of Daughter of Fortune and wanted to know what happened to the people. Michael Krasney didn't miss a beat and asked her if she dedicated that book to Oprah. They had excellent repoire.

Also touching was the huge line of people that came up to speak with her. So many well spoken native Spanish speakers who told her how much she has meant to them. A lovely evening.

p.s. the image I uploaded isn't from the lecture tonight - but it is the closest to how she looks now - she really looked great!

Great funny video - Librarians deal with a rule breaker

Here is the URL - this has been passed around lists, but i wanted to add it, as it puts a smile
on my face.

The creators say:
Our first video. Camera work by Claudia Babirat, direction and editing/effects by Donald Ferns. Starring Haunted Love (Rainy McMaster and Geva Downey) and Henri Davidson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne_WXP7lUWM