Open Letter by Chapter's President, Don Bos

photos of Camila's visit

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Dear Corazonistas and Reformistas Nationwide,

American Library Association President-Elect Camila Alire is back home in Colorado and we are all back to our normal routines. Her visit was quite memorable. She had a lot to say to us and a lot of camaraderie was established amongst all. In July she will be sworn in as the first Latina, or Latino for that matter, ALA President. So the pride factor of her visit will be with us all our lives.

It is not everyday that academic librarians, public school library staffs, both UT iSchool students and faculty, and public librarians get the chance to spend quality time together. The activities on Thursday, Feb. 12th started with Corazón members Silvia Reveles, Margo Gutierrez, Loriene Roy, Barbara Immroth and I sitting down for lunch at the Carillion Restaurant, situated in the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center on the UT campus, with Camila. Also in attendance were Director of UT Libraries Fred Heath, UT iSchool Dean Andrew Dillon, and TLA/ALA Student Organization officers Morgan McMillan and Sherie Miklaski.

At 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, approximately 75 members of the Austin library community filled the Rare Books Room of the UT Benson Latin American Collection facilities to listen to Camila deliver a presentation entitled "Library Advocacy from the Front Line". I wish more of my Austin ISD colleagues could of heard her talk that afternoon. Her story about the whole staff's exploits while she was dean of libraries at the University of New Mexico was reminiscent of our campaign in our school district last year to add funds to the budget in order to re-establish equitable resources across the district's libraries. After a yearlong campaign on our part, we were able to win a one-time infusion of 1.5 million dollars.

That evening, we enjoyed dipping tortilla chips into table-made guacamole and sharing dinner with Camila at Cantina Laredo, a 2nd Street District eatery. Those of us in attendance were Tom Moran, our own Maribel Garza, Gustavo Soto, Paola Ferate-Soto, Paola's father, Gustavo's and Paola's daughters, Silvia Reveles, Rebecca Linton, Loriene Roy, Melinda Curry, another Maribel Garza-Castro (private school librarian who is running for president of TLA), Elva Garza, Barbara Immroth, Alicia Bos (my wife), and myself (Don Bos).

At 9:00 a.m. the next day, Fri., Feb. 13th, Camila visited with the Austin I.S.D. librarians and library staff at Allan Elementary School that also houses the district's Library Media Center and library-related offices. Her presentation was entitled "Serving Latino Students." This meeting was arranged through AISD Library Coordinator Elizabeth Polk. 100+ librarians and library staff members were in attendance.

Kudos Department:

First and foremost, we have to thank Camila herself for taking the time to come and share with us. For a little more than 24 hours (I am not counting her travel time here) she worked nonstop giving presentations and hobnobbing with us, her fellow librarians. Both her talks were excellent. As mentioned above, the topic of her Thursday afternoon presentation at the Benson rang true for me. When she met with the AISD librarians the next day, her research into our district's past, present, and future demographics reflected a lot of work on her part.

If not for our own El Corazón de Tejas' vice president Silvia Reveles, Camila's Austin jaunt would never have happened. She had a chance opportunity to meet Camila some time ago and made the gutsy decision then and there to invite her to come to Austin in the name of our local Reforma chapter. For a number of years Silvia has sponsored a high school group of Reformistas at Akins H.S. (Is this the only H.S. Reforma group in America?) where she works as the librarian assistant. Camila was on a list, formed by the students, of Latinos they wanted to meet. She executed all the necessary follow through over the next 10 months or so. Her overall approach was to get Camila here for a number of days and get the different library communities, the University of Texas, Austin Independent School District, and the Austin Public Library to sponsor activities during the two-day event. The concept effectively put Camila in touch with a wide variety of almost 200 local librarians.

We also want to thank those at UT who made Thursday quite a special day: Margo Gutierrez, acting head librarian at UT's Benson Latin American Collection; Fred Heath. Director of UT libraries; Loriene Roy, UT iSchool faculty member and immediate past president of ALA; and Barbara Immroth, also a UT iSchool faculty member. They were each involved in organizing and implementing Camila's stay at the university and the events that took place there. Tom Moran, a branch-managing librarian with Austin Public Library, made all the arrangements for our Thursday night dinner that afforded our chapter's members an informal get-together with our esteemed visitor.

Thanks, too, to Elizabeth Polk, coordinator of libraries with the Austin Independent School District, and her entire staff for hosting Camila's talk with the district's library personnel. Special thanks to Gustavo Soto, a past president of El Corazón de Tejas, for his extra assistance during the entire year and for the pictures he took during some of the events that Camila attended. Camila's visit increased involvement within the chapter and so a special thanks to all our members who participated in any way, shape or form.

Photo Index

updated by G.Soto on Mar 14, 2009