Rocío has worked with the Hillsboro Public Library for over 17 years and has shown loyalty and passion to the Hillsboro community. As our outreach coordinator, she has taught me how to lead her ongoing partnerships in Student Success. I’m in a new position as a Student Success Librarian with the Hillsboro Public Library and I assist Rocio with school outreach and have slowly taken over those duties with her guidance. Her community organization partnerships have grown, and her outreach is mainly focused outside of schools. However, her involvement stays the same and she makes sure I’m aware of the process and leads me to the highest quality of service to the community. She has taught me how to lead parent workshops, event planning, community partnership building, and marketing strategies. Before my hiring, she did this work all on her own, all while supporting the library with our Spanish collection, organizing cultural events, building bilingual programs for our Latinx community, and partnering with community organizations in Hillsboro. I still have moments where I cannot comprehend how she managed to do all this work on her own. She’s a superwoman!
Rocio is constantly moving, organizing, and prioritizing Hillsboro. She hears the community’s needs and keeps them in mind when designing programs, events, and purchasing materials. She finds exciting ways to serve and give them the highest quality of service. Since she’s my mentor and she is not the type to brag about herself, I’ll have to tell you a story where she positively impacted me.
We had a Day of the Dead outreach event at a low-income apartment complex in Hillsboro. We drove into the parking lot with no families in sight, so Rocio jumped right on it, and we knocked on every door and invited them to our event. Rocio spoke to the families with such welcoming words and showed warmth in her invitation to join us in the community room. We had the music going, pan dulce setup, craft tables, and Loteria spaces ready to go. Slowly, but surely families trickled in. The families played Mexican bingo with us, they made beautiful crafts, and we ate sweet bread together. I would hear kids say, “this is fun” and “que divertido” as the night went on.
The night ended with some Storytimes around the couches of this community room. The kids melted on the couch as Rocio read with her engaging voice. As the event ended, families, parents, the low-income housing management team, and our local non-profit art organization thanked Rocio for another amazing event!
This event hit me on a personal level, not only because of her genuine invitation to the families but because she sheds a light on an unseen community. I used to hang out in a similar low-income apartment complex, and I didn’t ever see an organization come into our space to improve our lives. For most of my life, my grandmother lived in low-income housing apartments. It is a place where we celebrated the holidays or went over so she could babysit us. I loved going to my grandma’s house because the community she was surrounded by was strong, loving, and fun people. I was so happy to see what Rocio created in the communities that I once belong to. This moment made a full circle and I felt at ease knowing that there is a positive impact made. Rocio sees our communities. She sees the good and wants to bring some celebration and joy to their homes. She wants our communities to know that the library is for us & she’ll meet them where they are. I am thankful I get to witness all her work and her sincerity shine in all her outreach programs.