This Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month, we are highlighting the contributions and cultural backgrounds of some of our Latinx faculty. Today we highlight Yvonne Rodriguez, language arts and Latin teacher and middle school librarian. I sat down with Yvonne for an interview about her Hispanic identity, its impact on her work as a teacher and librarian, and her thoughts on Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month.
When describing her identity, Yvonne said, “I usually I call it Hispanic. I know there’s some trickiness in there. I go back and forth, but Hispanic is kind of [the term] I grew up with so that’s usually where that lands.” When asked to elaborate on the “trickiness” with the word Hispanic, Yvonne said, “I didn’t actually know for a while that Hispanic is a relatively new term I think from like the 60s. And it was a political thing for the sake of the Census…I don’t mind it and I know it can be very useful, although it’s so tricky because Hispanic means Spanish speaking countries. And there are [countries] that have Latinx people that don’t speak Spanish…But I know that it’s political and I know that it’s a cover-all, for kind of everybody…Because it’s political, I know that not everybody is very comfortable with it.” To learn more about the creation of the word “Hispanic,” click here.
In addition to using the word “Hispanic,” Yvonne sometimes refers to herself as “Brown.” When explaining why she uses the term Brown, Yvonne said, “I think that’s just the way I’ve kind of compartmentalized it because it’s a literal fact. I can go around and say that I’m a Brown person and thus people are going to see me and…this is what they see first. They might not know all those complicated background things, but I can’t, I don’t want to, hide the color of my skin. So, it tends to be the easiest way to just explain (laughs).”
The “complicated background things” Yvonne is referring to are her identity as a biracial woman (with a white mother and Hispanic father) and her connections to both Puerto Rican and Mexican identities. Yvonne described her background, saying “My mom is white. Her family is white. I do not identify as white at all… partly because I think I am not white. I do not present— I don’t think, anyway—-as white… I didn’t really have a chance to be a kid and be mistaken as a white person. That was just never going to happen. So I’ve always been a Brown person…I haven’t had balanced interactions with the white part of my family. So, all of my growing up has been from the Brown side. I don’t feel like I have a lot of things that I did as a kid that resonate as any kind of white background.” Despite having a white mother, Yvonne does not identify strongly as either white or biracial, instead thinking of herself as Hispanic or Brown. When describing her father’s background, Yvonne said, “He’s complicated in that his dad is Puerto Rican, and his mom was Mexican. And usually if I had to—not that you have to pick one— but I think that mostly the family edges towards the Mexican roots rather than Puerto Rican traditions. A lot of the people we knew that were family friends were Mexican. And his parents were the parents that came to the country. He was born here and his siblings were, but it’s not too far removed; we’re not too far removed from people that were not actually born in the country.”
While Yvonne has a family connection to Mexico, she was born and raised in California and identifies as American. She discussed the common (incorrect) assumption that most Hispanic people are immigrants and emphasized the importance of recognizing the diversity within the Hispanic population and the American identity of many Hispanic people. She said, “If somebody asked me ‘what are you?’(Which has happened), I wouldn’t necessarily say ‘I’m Mexican’ because I’m not. I grew up around a lot of people who were and I have a lot of that influence in the background and things like that, but I’m not. I’m American. I grew up here. And sometimes that caused conflict… I think that there can be— not necessarily in this space—but there can be an assumption that Hispanic people are all immigrants. And when people talk about immigration and they’re getting angry about it, that’s who they’re talking about. They’re talking about people who are usually coming up from the southern border. And, so a lot of times that’s just the assumption is that you’re not from here.”
When describing how her Hispanic background and identity influence her work as a teacher and librarian, Yvonne described how she’s able to connect with students who share a similar background, empathize with their experiences, and provide them with materials (e.g., books, access to historical information) that she wished she was exposed to as a child. She said, “I’ve been able to kind of just bring them in and acknowledge that those experiences that I’ve had that I don’t like, other people don’t need to have, at least around me, and to just sort of make that a little easier for people and bring in some things that maybe I didn’t have…like history and even just books with representation in them….I’ve been intentional about let’s go find some bilingual stuff…Let’s bring it in. Let’s make sure that…people…have something they can find themselves in because I didn’t and sometimes still don’t.”
Yvonne is passionate about curating diverse library collections where everyone can find a book that reflects their experiences. When asked if she has a favorite book that highlights Latinx voices and/or experiences, she mentioned several, including: Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera, House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez, and Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas.
When asked her thoughts on Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month, Yvonne said, “It’s nice. I think it’s interesting that it’s from the 15th to the 15th because of those historical significances…It is nice to have a space where there are career opportunities or professional development opportunities that are like hey let’s go look at these people from these places that any other day of the week or any other month we might just not worry about too much. I think it’s a group that people have so many assumptions about and you can’t break them if you don’t learn about the truth. And having a dedicated space to learn about the truth can open up some eyes and challenge some of those stereotypes.”
This Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month Yvonne encourages others to pause and learn more about the Hispanic and Latinx community. She said: “I would like people to not just hear all of these things and just move on. I think that the reason why there is a month is so that you can pause. And yeah we’re all busy, but when else are you going to pause? If you don’t actually take it in, you’re not learning anything. So actually paying attention to the emails or the festival or the highlights or the book thing, the YouTube series…. If you don’t take advantage of these things which are really only being highlighted now and won’t necessarily be highlighted later, you won’t get the chance to actually learn from them….People are handing it to you on a platter right now (laughs)…Take advantage of that!”
Written by Kristen Clayton, DEI Director