Households sat on the polka-dotted carpet at Los Amigos Books on a Saturday morning in November, listening to the month-to-month Spanish storytime. Youngsters’s librarian and storyteller Rosie Camargo, also called Miss Rosie, learn “Gracias” by Jarvis, a e book a few boy giving thanks for the whole lot he likes.
“¡Gracias gorro por no dejar que mis pensamientos se escapen volando!” Camargo recited. “Gracias lluvia por los charcos”.
Youngsters laughed, and fogeys listened intently whereas proprietor and former twin language instructor Laura Rodríguez-Romaní took footage and movies for the bookstore’s social media accounts. The story instances at Los Amigos Books are among the many occasions the Spanish language bookstore gives to Chicago households looking for entry to Spanish books.
Los Amigos Books’ mission
Rodríguez-Romaní launched Los Amigos Books as a web based bookstore in 2021. What started as simply a web based catalog has advanced into a store on Western Avenue in Chicago. She appears to be like to advertise language studying by her bookstore, with cabinets stocked up with Spanish and bilingual books for kids and younger adults, promising correct and respectful representations of the cultures being portrayed.
Cabinets and tables stocked with image books, fiction novels and biographies. (Images by Mariana Bermudez.)
“If you realize your self and your tradition and the place you come from, you’re extra sound of thoughts and cozy with your self and your personal identification,” Rodríguez-Romaní mentioned. “You’re additionally capable of communicate to your grandparents and the older generations.”
Raised in Chicago, Rodríguez-Romaní majored in Spanish on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. When she began taking evening courses to be a librarian, she took a visit to Guadalajara, Mexico, for a global e book truthful, the place she discovered about worldwide publishers. This gave her the concept for Los Amigos Books. All this information helps her choose the books to show on-line and within the retailer. She additionally sells to libraries and twin language faculties, searching for instructional supplies that American publishers don’t supply.
“I really feel nice accountability to make it possible for what we supply and promote to these shoppers are going for use as instructional instruments and language fashions for the youngsters who’re studying books, and to help their bilingual programming,” Rodríguez-Romaní mentioned.
Success by their method
Rosie Camargo is a buyer and collaborator of Los Amigos Books. She is the cultural literacy specialist at South Holland Public Library.
“Once I began ordering from her, my library admin was like, ‘Properly, you’ll be able to order these from Baker and Taylor,’” Camargo mentioned. “I’m like, ‘No, I can’t. These publishers don’t promote to these large distributors, so with a purpose to get these in my library, I’ve to order by her.’”
Camargo collaborates with Los Amigos Books to guide month-to-month Spanish story instances, which embrace music and humanities and crafts. In November, households adorned Christmas timber and made star-shaped frames to take residence.
(Picture by Mariana Bermudez.)
In line with a 2023 Pew Analysis Middle report on the significance of Spanish utilization amongst future U.S. Latino generations, over 65% of greater than 3,000 Latinos surveyed agreed it is crucial.
Rodríguez-Romaní, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, needs her son, Noah, to remain linked with the language and tradition.
“My son was one among my greatest motivations,” Rodríguez-Romaní mentioned. “Him and kids of his age, and having them have an area the place you stroll in they usually see their language all around the cabinets, they usually see characters that seem like them.”
Los Amigos Books additionally holds e book signings with Latino authors.
In October, they welcomed Mexican creator Isis Macedo Suárez, who lives in Chicago, to current her just lately launched bilingual e book “Strelin y su viaje al planeta azul” (Strelin and Her Journey to the Blue Planet).
Suárez says Los Amigos Books “is a singular atmosphere. It offers that familiarity whenever you enter, as in case you had been in a lounge, with out the rigidity of massive bookstores,” she mentioned in Spanish. “With Los Amigos Books, you actually really feel that affection and love for literature.”
Trying forward
Prospects like Claudia Alemán, a babysitter who shopped on the bookstore a Wednesday in November, mentioned bookstores like this one assist Hispanic kids not lose curiosity of their cultures. Throughout a stroll at Holstein Park, only some minutes east of the bookstore, she determined to pay a go to. Whereas the little women she cares for under learn English, the native Mexican believes she will be able to educate them about her language and tradition by books.
“They don’t perceive, but when we educate them a little bit, they develop up with curiosity,” Alemán mentioned in Spanish.
Rodríguez-Romaní says they get a mixture of households who register for storytime. The range of her prospects reveals Los Amigos Books’ success in reaching individuals who additionally worth multiculturalism.
Samuel Rodríguez, Rodríguez-Romaní’s husband, says these crowds are encouraging.
“It form of reveals us that we’re doing one thing proper, and there are different individuals on the market that wish to elevate their youngsters bilingual, even when they don’t seem to be from Latino cultures,” Rodríguez mentioned.
Because the story time in November ended, households completed adorning their Christmas frames and even bought books on their means out, carrying paper luggage with the Los Amigos Books emblem.
Rodríguez-Romaní hopes Los Amigos Books continues to develop, as she is open to increasing to different places.
“You may see large chain shops submit about some Spanish language books by Latino authors solely in Hispanic Heritage Month, however that’s what we do year-round on a regular basis,” Rodríguez-Romaní mentioned.
Cowl Picture: Proprietor Laura Rodríguez-Romaní at Los Amigos Books, situated at 2207 N. Western Ave. (Picture by Mariana Bermudez.)
Mariana Bermudez is a second-year pupil at Northwestern College learning journalism and inventive writing. An aspiring bilingual sports activities journalist, she hopes to characterize Latina ladies within the sports activities business, whereas persevering with to report on points that have an effect on Hispanic and Latino communities. When she will not be pitching a narrative or reporting on the bottom, she will be discovered taking Latin dance courses, studying Portuguese or studying a very good romance novel.
She will be discovered on LinkedIn here and on Instagram as @mari_bermudez05
Writer’s Notes: This story, amongst others, was produced by undergraduate college students within the bilingual reporting class at Northwestern College’s Medill College of Journalism, Media & Built-in Advertising Communications. Led by Prof. Mei-Ling Hopgood, the category goals to assist journalism college students observe delicate and moral engagement and reporting with multicultural communities in Spanish and English.
