Service to special populations today

Serving New Immigrant Communities in the Library by Sondra Cuban and Kathleen De La Pea McCook examines the role of the library in today’s world in regard to immigration. Specifically for Latino populations this has great significance both for the library and for the immigrant community. Of the top ten countries sending immigrants to the US, five are Spanish speaking. There are currently 35 million adults in the US whose first language is not English, and this number is expected to keep growing.

The Latino population also grows more rapidly than other segments and accounts for half of the population growth in the country. Some areas like the Southwest and West are accustomed to this, but other areas like Greensboro, NC, Atlanta, GA and Las Vegas, NV, that are not traditionally thought of as hosts to large Latino populations have experienced ethnic shifts.

An ALA study showed that 58% of Latinos used the library. Libraries are usually inclusive, adaptable and flexible and, more often than not, have a true desire to help. Libraries are open places where at no charge immigrants can read, improve their language skills, have access to computers, form a bond with others in the community and experience and share the enjoyment books and films with their children.

Because 62% of low wage workers are considered to have limited English proficiency (LEP), these library opportunities become more important. No where else fulfills this role either because they charge money, are open fewer hours, require registration or proof of citizenship or immigration status and/or require higher literacy skills. The library is a safe place to go for information and it is part of the historic role/mission of library to provide the services that immigrants need to adapt to our society. When there are fewer educational opportunities in traditional society, there is a greater demand on libraries, and society really expects libraries to fulfill this role.

The Center for Immigration Studies finds that assimilation is not as quick as before because an atmosphere of patriotism mixed suspicion or skepticism in the general public sometimes borders on hostility toward those perceived as foreign. Another problem not often considered is that sometimes there is tension between legal and illegal immigrants in a community. And finally, modern technology makes it easier for immigrant populations to maintain contact with their countries of origin. All of this can have a profound psychological impact on the populations and should be taken into consideration when creating library programming

The authors are strong proponents of community assessment, outreach, and committed conditions to ensure that policies and services can be provided, and being proactive is the key. This book contains many examples and anecdotes from their research that can be adapted in practical and positive ways by libraries everywhere.

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Serving New Immigrant Communities in the Library
By Sondra Cuban, Kathleen De La Pea McCook. Libraries Unlimited, 2007

La Purísima

This is the chapter of San Miguel’s history that I have found the most enchanting and intriguing. Let me tell you just the beginning to see if I can entice you into reading Rebellious Nuns: The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent by Margaret Chowning. The cast of characters is fascinating. Let’s begin with Manuel Tomas de la Canal who came to San Miguel from Mexico City in about 1730. He was the son of a wealthy Spanish merchant and became an even wealthier sheep rancher and wool merchant. Manuel de la Canal and his wife Maria Josepha Hervas’ first child was born in 1736 and they named her Maria Josepha Lina de la Canal y Hervas for her mother, as is traditional. Over the next dozen years they had nine children. Manuel spent lavishly on both private and civic buildings, including the family’s summer palace which is the Instituto Allende today.

Within days of each other Manuel de la Canal and Maria Josepha Hervas both died. The eldest of their nine orphans was Maria Josepha Lina who was twelve. She immediately let it be known that she intended to found a convent. This was no sudden whim or romantic notion. She had been preparing all her life. She was well educated and independent. In her parent’s house she had insisted upon living apart as in a cell. She tried to work like the servants and when she could, pretended to drop something on the floor so she could surreptitiously kiss their feet. By the time she was fifteen, with the help of her confessor, her plans were well under way.

Enter another colorful character: Father Luis Phelipe Neri de Alfaro, Maria Josepha Lina’s confessor. He was a trusted friend of the family, a mystic who devoted 25 years to building Atotonilco at the behest of Christ himself. He wore severe hair shirts on Fridays and slept in a coffin to keep his mortality in mind, although he wore out three coffins over his lifetime. Alfaro had experience in founding religious establishments, and had direct or indirect connections to seven religious institutions in or near San Miguel.

A convent in the city would be a crowning glory. A convent was an appealing alternative to marriage for upper class young ladies. It also brought advantages to the city by spurring growth, creating a lending institution for the moderate from the endowment built by dowries, and adding a certain air of culture or refinement to its reputation.

Maria Josepha Lina had quite definite ideas about how her convent should be run; and there’s where all the problems begin. She wanted to institute the rule of vida común or shared life. Her hand is obvious in the “constitution” that stipulated the exact structure and practices of the convent: the number and status of each nun, the amount of their dowries, what racial background they must have, and that there were to be no servants. This would prove to be the undoing of the convent over and over.

Most convents that required a dowry followed the rule of the vida particular or private life. The result was often a kind of private city where nuns had personal servants, habits made of fine cloth, jewels, pets, and singing, dancing and theatrics were all part of life behind the grille of the cloister. Every indication was that La Purísima should be the same.

When Maria Josepha Lina was twenty, in 1756, the convent was inaugurated. There were eight days of masses, fireworks, theatrical comedies, bullfights, and parades. And then all hell broke loose. Three times. I won’t give away any more of the story but I recommend it heartily.

The convent today houses the art institute, Bella Artes, where foreigners come to paint.
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Rebellious Nuns: The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent, 1752-1863. By Margaret Chowning. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.)

Understanding race

Gary Howard’s book begins with his own story: he managed to all but finish high school in Seattle in 1964 without having come across someone of a different race. Then he went to Yale and began participating in an outreach program at the YMCA, which led to a lifelong dedication to helping others understand the complexities of culture, and most of all race.

The title is borrowed from the words of Malcolm X, ‘We can't teach what we don't know, and we can't lead where we can't go.’ Howard posits that we need to understand all races and how the European white race became dominant. He makes the case that we need to understand our own cultural identity, which is a surprisingly uncomfortable one, and acknowledge our responsibility for the oppression of others.

This may sound overly morose, but the book actually supports finding meaningful ways to communicate effectively and sincerely with people from other cultural groups. The implications for libraries are obvious. Howard, who has dedicated his life to this, also runs the REACH Center in Seattle, a nonprofit, internationally renowned institution, which provides workshops, training and consultation.

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Howard, G.R. (2006). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers and multiracial schools. New York: Teachers College Press/Columbia University.

Do you have ten minutes?

El corazon de Mexico - The heart of Mexico - is the name of a great video made by the Departamento de Turismo de San Miguel de Allende that I just found with the sights of SMA set to music. I think we may be disappointed with the real thing after the wondrous sights so beautifully portrayed here. I must warn you that it lasts about ten minutes, mas o menos, so make sure you've got time to see it because you probably won't want to tear yourselves away. In fact, maybe you should pour a glass of wine and enjoy...

http://www.terrazassanmiguel.com/heart_of_mexico.html

Silver Slaves

I thought it was interesting to learn that African slaves were brought to be used in the sliver mines near San Miguel de Allende. According to a report on March 2, 1768, an inspection that had been ordered to investigate charges of mistreatment of slaves was conducted in the area and fourteen slave families were investigated. There is also mention of six other male slaves without families in that specific report. Proctor states that while it is impossible to determine what percentage of the labor force was made up of slaves at that time, he concludes that it would have been significant. The slaves imported from Africa, like the indigenous slaves, formed part of the encomiendo system that bound them and their descendants to a particular plantation or hacienda and they were not usually subsequently bought and sold. Interestingly enough, although the Constitution of 1824 freed the slaves, some slavery was still practiced as late as 1829.
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Afro-Mexican Slave Labor in the Obrajes de Paños of New Spain, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Author(s): Frank T. Proctor III Source: The Americas, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jul., 2003), pp. 33-58 Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654753