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As a child, I was given the gift of curiosity. Within my small neighborhood, even my mother recognized that things stayed.: people who were there had their children, went to work, and lived within a comfortable bubble. My family did not have such a straightforward path. My father’s parents came from Colombia, and my mother’s arrived from Honduras and Greece. This inheritance of otherness placed within myself a need to understand what seems to be common knowledge, and honor the path of understanding of which I arrive, which is rarely linear, and often at-odds to the comfort of others, informs my practice. Myself being an artist raised across two homes each with four generations of my relations, whose social practice relies on collaborative actions informing public memory and wisdom in the form of alternative oral histories and archival practice, I understand that duties which may be pursued and active within collaboration with the public reflect my own sense of responsibility in a world within community.
I expect my role within the ecosystem of a library to be informed by my professional and personal experiences in varied settings. I would expect to offer a wide scope of reference while putting into context both lived experience and topics within question — it is with archival knowledge, oral and public histories, and multimedia storytelling that can both satisfy desires for tangibility within evidence-based histories, and inspire an infinite world of possibilities by showing curious patrons what is indeed possible in recognizing and memorializing importance, even in the most pedestrian mundanities. I would imagine myself in a place where, besides dedication to archival management and reference aid, I could offer public programs, including cultural offerings (i.e. talks, heritage-based music and craft-making, food presentation) while encouraging rotations of local delegations of intergenerational folk to inform what they would like to see present in their library.
As we live in a country where information at the moment remains widely available, there tends to be a lack of effort in the process of literacy on an individual level. I am excited by the opportunity to help nurture this vital skill, while curating opportunities to put larger concepts into contexts. While working within the system of library services, one could analyze trends of reference by its users, and curate public programming focused on those specific to the library branch, and in turn, the community which it serves. An example can include food: if there is a tendency for patrons to ask about recipes, or regionally-specific histories, the library might consider hosting special events where patrons gather to share their findings and share stories regarding their personal memory and/or connections with their food. I have hosted such Recipe Storytelling Circles in the past, bringing together multigenerational and multicultural community members for an hour each of camaraderie and memory. Such gatherings of people, especially across many differences among demographics, counters acts of bias and racism, while building up comfort with individuals of difference. These instances of creative programming, especially when curated within a spirit of collaboration alongside the immediate communities, are sure to garner trust between patrons and the worker of a library, in this instance, myself, as I venture into a world that relies on trust to respond to inquiry in a respectful manner. In the end, I would prefer to be remembered for kindness.