How Identity Has Influenced an Outreach Librarian at the State Library's Career

There's always a lot of pressure when you're a first-generation American. Your family left something behind, at least in my case, my family left an oppressive government to come here and they left everything. So there's a lot of pressure to do well and to have a career.

Being Latina, there are certain places where you're just not seen the same. I think being in Miami for so long, I was fortunate that Hispanics are the majority there. However, the library world in general is more of a white male-dominated industry.

Being able to advance in my career while I was there made me really proud, and my family and coworkers are proud too. I had some amazing supervisors and managers who were always super encouraging.

I know that has made me work harder because I want to please all of those people. I want to make sure I'm making my parents proud because they did leave all of that behind. My parents have higher degrees, but they are not from this country. They didn't really work in their careers here, even though they both studied.

When I work with the public, I was that kid translating for my mom when I was little and being her interpreter. I see kids come in and do the same thing, and I know where they're coming from. That has definitely impacted how I approach my career.

There's always pressure to do more and to reach higher. It's both good and bad pressure. I'm doing this for them, but I'm also doing this for myself. It's important to know that I'm doing things for myself as well.

I use the fact that I know Spanish to my advantage. I know there are people who don't, and that will put me above some other candidates for a position. I'm fortunate that my parents taught me and that I continued learning on my own. I know some people don't have that.

I'm going to make sure that I use that to help other people. I firmly believe in helping other minorities and other people come up. There should be no glass ceiling for any of us.

I am a mentor to those who are in lower positions, and I am constantly looking for mentors for myself. I still get calls from people I used to work with asking for advice on situations or to talk through ideas. I absolutely make time for anyone who needs or wants my help.

That is also because I have come into this country learning things in a different way than people who have always been here.