I encompass a degree of cultural competency and lived experience that many of my colleagues do not. However, now that I have entered the library world and function as a minority among my colleagues, I recognize the significance of my identity.

Everyone around me was Latinx, mostly Mexican, so it wasn’t something I felt the need to address. Growing up in East Los Angeles, I never placed much emphasis on my ethnic identity. Yet, my parents instilled in me what I truly needed: a willingness to endure hardship and uncertainty in order to achieve a goal. In fact, on my path to higher education I lacked an academic role model. However, what my parents couldn’t provide for me materially was far less significant than the perseverance and resilience they modeled while struggling to cover the family’s most basic of necessities. While I grew up in poverty, I was nearly an adult before I began to realize the true disparity of resources and opportunities that existed among my high school peers. from Mexico, and raised seven children on menial salaries.

Yesenia: I’m a first-generation Mexican-American, born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. Sujei: Tell us a bit about your background and identity. In this new entry, we talk with Yesenia Villar-Villalobos, a Mexican-American children’s librarian in Los Angeles, California. In case you’d like to catch up on previous posts, you can find links to them below this article. In these interviews, we highlight the work librarians do for Latinx children’s literature, especially in libraries that serve Latinx communities. The Latinxs in Kid Lit at the Library series is an occasional feature of this blog, featuring interviews with children’s library workers.

Grandma's Gift by Eric Velásquez