Who We Are
Two Latinx library workers with a passion for creating culturally relevant early literacy library services. We met in 2017, while working at LBPL and have been collaborating ever since! A celebration of the diverse Latinx/e culture is at the core of our approach to storytime.
Bibiliocuentos was created out of a desire to make a library of bilingual storytime resources starting with what we’ve collected or created ourselves. Some of the materials you’ll see here are originals songs, rhymes and storytime materials. Our hope is that we can collaborate with and gather resources here for the community of library professionals focused on bilingual and bicultural early literacy.
Luisa Leija
Luisa Leija began working in libraries in 2017, after transitioning from over a decade of serving in the nonprofit, youth development sector. Luisa brings together her passions and expertise around community engagement, youth development, social justice, knowledge production, and cultural heritage, which enables her to provide a spectrum of services to historically marginalized groups.
In 2020-2021 Luisa was awarded an ALA Spectrum Scholarship and in 2019, she was awarded the REFORMA National Rose Treviño scholarship. She is also the 2021-22 CLA Begun Scholar. Luisa received her MSLIS degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her graduate studies examine the relationship between critical & culturally relevant, arts-based library programming with emerging technologies in public spaces. Luisa also holds an MFA in Writing from the California College of the Arts and a BA in Chicana/o Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
Luisa is currently the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Multilingual Collections Senior Librarian at the Long Beach Public Library.
Sheridan Jay Cazarez
Sheridan Jay Cazarez is a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library.
He earned his MSLIS at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is also a 2021-2022 ALA Spectrum Scholar. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from California State University at Long Beach. His undergraduate work studied the cultures, histories, politics, and literatures of Spanish speaking America and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as basic translation and interpretation methods.
Interests include culturally competent service to Latinxs and Spanish speakers, biliteracy, digital engagement, merchandising in public libraries, and making libraries fun as well as educational. He’s presented on bilingual storytime methodologies at the REFORMA National Conference, Seguimos Creando Enlaces Conference, California Library Association Conference, and American Library Association Conference. Recently he’s also provided online bilingual storytime webinars with CALL Academy and
PCI Webinars.
He’s served as a union steward and Executive Board member of IAM Local 1930, and currently is the Vice-President of REFORMA Los Angeles the Logistics Co-Chair for the REFORMA VIII Conference Committee.
To learn more about or volunteer for the conference, visit reformaconference.org