Stephanie Rodriguez recalls translating for her parents, who didn’t speak English, while she was growing up. Today, she notices children who walk into Tulsa’s Martin Regional Library dealing with the same battle.
She relishes the moments where she gets to lend a hand.
“Just that relief for kids to be like,’OK, I don’t have to translate from my mom right now. This person’s got it,’” Rodriguez, who is of Mexican and Peruvian descent, said. “It’s still like a great honor to do, but sometimes, there are things that, as a kid, you don’t understand and you’re just doing your best to help your parents out.”
Rodriguez is the Tulsa City-County Library’s newest Hispanic Resource Center coordinator, where she brings her unique perspective and understanding of the Latino community to her job every day. She envisions expanding the center’s collection, connecting with other branches and building more relationships with the growing Latino community in Tulsa.
The Hispanic Resource Center is located within Martin Regional Library at 2601 S. Garnett Road. It opened in 1999, and is home to roughly 3,500 items in its collection – all in Spanish. The center is one of four resource centers in the library system, which also includes the African American, American Indian and genealogy centers.
The previous coordinator was responsible for purchasing items in Spanish for the entire library system. Now, Rodriguez is only required to focus on purchasing for the center — and expanding its offerings.
“I feel like all my predecessors have left me in a good spot for the collection, but of course, as our community grows, the need grows,” she said.
Community connections
Rodriguez’s family settled five minutes away from the library when she was only four. The library was a center of the community, and that hasn’t changed. But other things have.
“With growing up in east Tulsa, I would say we saw how fast things changed at first,” she said. “It was just being lucky if they had Duvalines at the grocery store and not having to wait for my grandparents to bring me Duvalines from Mexico.”
She always knew she had to earn an education. She continued to study and eventually landed a job at Tulsa Community College. A colleague encouraged her to seek a job in the library system because of a growing need for bilingual staff.
Nearly nine years later, she’s taken over leading the resource center. Central Library manager Rebecca Howard remembers Rodriguez appearing in the library’s first full Spanish commercial about the summer reading program.
“It was always really clear to me that she was very invested and dedicated to the Hispanic/Latinx community and from whatever position she was in, she really led the way and kind of advocating for Spanish-speaking library customers,” Howard said.
‘A safe space’
The center is more than physical books. It’s a safe space for people to come and use its digital databases, learn new skills or simply enjoy the surroundings, Rodriguez said.
“If you don’t have internet access at home, being able to just be on Facebook, apply for jobs, or are kids that just come and play Roblox, and that’s OK because that’s what the library is for,” she said.
The center offers information about the history and culture of Latinos and Latin America, cultural and educational programs catered to the Latino community, resources for Spanish and English language skills, bilingual storytimes and more.
Jannell Johannes, Martin Regional Library assistant manager, said she remembers Rodriguez taking charge and constantly checking in on different groups throughout the library’s Pokémon Day event this year.
“I’ve been able to see that from a different vantage point and to see her thought process and to really see how she puts community members at the front of her mind when she’s planning events or when she is helping someone simply find a resource,” Johannes said. “She has a lot of confidence in that area.”
Hispanic Resource Center’s future
Rodriguez has multiple goals for the center’s future, from ensuring it features books requested by residents to offering specialty programs in Spanish and creating an on-site reference collection including encyclopedias, dictionaries and historical books.
She envisions hosting events similar to other culture resource centers, such as the All-Black Towns Bus Tour hosted by Rudisill Regional Library’s African American Resource Center. Another goal, Rodriguez said, is to connect with each library in the system to see how they connect with Spanish-speaking customers.
She wants to continue advocating for the library system to hire more bilingual staff. Some customers have traveled over 20 minutes for Spanish language assistance at Martin, she said.
“I think about those things. I don’t know all the answers to solve them, but I do think about how, in this role, I can help other library branches better assist Spanish-speaking customers,” she said.
Lea este artículo en español aquí.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
