“I think I’m really lucky to be a Latina,” Hartford Park Street Library Branch Manager Graciela Rivera said.
Rivera is dedicated to helping the Latinx community in the neighborhood she grew up in.
“I moved right here to this Frog Hollow neighborhood, and we grew up on Affleck Street,” Rivera said.
The New York native traveled as a child before arriving in the Nutmeg state. At four weeks old, Rivera’s mom sent her to the Dominican Republic, where her grandmother watched over her.
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“She couldn’t take care of me at the time, she was a new arrival in the United States, in New York, had no family support here. She said, you know, 'the best person that can take care of my kid, is my mother,'” Rivera said.
In 1999, Rivera’s family arrived in Connecticut, with hopes of a better future. As a teenager, Rivera would spend a lot of time at her local library, but she never thought her career would bring her back.
“I had some amazing mentors as a kid, and one of them would always tell me, 'you’re going to be a librarian someday,'” Rivera said.
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Rivera is currently the branch manager at the Hartford Park Street Library at the Lyric. In her role, she aims to offer resources that help the Hispanic community.
Rivera is currently overseeing a program in partnership with Arte Popular that gives women in the community a chance to explore entrepreneurship. It's called Mujeres Emprendedoras.
“The main goal is to empower Latina women in the neighborhood to come out to do workshops, teach the community some of the artisanal skills they have and that they have learned from their country,” Rivera said.
The group is starting their third season on Oct. 4 and participants will be able to take digital literacy classes between 5 to 7 p.m.
“Anything that they need in terms of getting a business license and things like that, those are things we are working on through those projects,” Rivera said.
The program is funded through a $25,000 grant from the Latino Endowment Fund. The grant also covers childcare for participating members.
“Because we want to break those barriers for the Latino community, and one of the biggest things, specifically for women, is childcare,” Rivera said.
All eight library branches in the city offer bilingual programs. As we approach the midterm election, they plan to host a voter registration drive at all of the locations.
“A lot can be done, there’s many Latinos in the community, I think the biggest population of Hartford are Latino. So, let's go out there and vote and have our presence felt that day,” Rivera said.
Rivera said her Hispanic heritage and her bilingual abilities were the connecting piece in her career.
“You can achieve your dreams, you can go to college, being a Latino should not be a barrier to achieve what you want in life, it should be a blessing, it should be a reason to better yourself so you can help your own people,” Rivera said.
