00:00:00
Speaker 1: Growing up. When you know, my parents dropped me off at school. I would hear other parents telling their kids, I love you, have a great day, be good, do anything bad, and I'll be back here with my house slipper. In tons of languages, people would speak Polish and Yiddish and Italian. For me, it was goodrati And as a kid who grew up in Jersey in the nineteen eighties, having multiple languages glide passed your ears was as common as well as common as like your one buddy who insisted that his uncle was in the mafia and if you needed anything to just let him know. And by the way, I know that sounds like a total stereotype, but every kid who grew up in the New Jersey in the nineteen eighties like had this one friend, even if you were like eight years old. Well, look, I don't have to tell you that. Here in the United States, it was not always like this. Native Americans had fear instilled into them if they spoke their language at the mandatory schools they had to attend. During World War One, Germans had their language targeted. Specific laws were made in Iowa and across the Midwest that prohibited the use of any foreign language in public spaces. But now, when I visit my parents in my old New Jersey neighborhood, and when I walk down the street of my own New York City neighborhood, languages weave in and out of sidewalks and subways and restaurants. Speaking multiple languages is often seen as an asset.
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Speaker 2: You know, the future is bilingual, and the more languages our children know, the better they're prepared.
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Speaker 1: Today, I'm speaking with Patti Rodriguez, the co founder of Lil Libros, a bilingual children's publishing company, about transforming the narrative of bilingualism in America.
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Speaker 3: Here we Go again again Again.
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Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Calpen and this is Here we Go Again, a show that takes today's trends and headlines and asks why does history keep repeating itself?
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Speaker 3: Here we go?
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Speaker 4: Good morning, How are you?
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Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. I was excited to talk to you, especially today, because we kept coming back to this idea of multi lingualism or bilingualism. I grew up bilingual as well. I speak good Roati and English. English was my first language. But I remember growing up just feeling like you know, I grew up in a relatively diverse suburb of New York in New Jersey. And when I say relatively diverse, I always feel like I have to qualify. It was like white diversity. It was like a white melting pot. So I never necessarily felt like the fact that I was bilingual meant that I was any less American. In fact that it was always installed at us. It is that like that actually made you more American. But then there was also that I do remember being sometimes a bit shy about switching in and out of English and good Roati in public places. And it wasn't from a sense of shame. I just remember feeling, well, it's not Italian or Spanish, so it's not like it's going to sound weird to people, you know, at fourteen, like Gudrati is not a sexy language. It's not Italian, it's not Spanish. Like you're aware of that, right. All of which is to say, I was very excited to talk to you because of your background, because of what you do. You have a really impressive professional resume in every sense. And so if we could start at the very beginning and just tell us about you, where were you born, where did you grow up in what languages did you speak growing up.
00:03:35
Speaker 4: I was born in Los Angeles.
00:03:37
Speaker 2: I was raised in La County back in the eighties, shortly after Reagan signed the Amnesty bill that gave close to three million immigrants amnesty, essentially allowing communities to come out of the shadows, my parents being one of them.
00:03:55
Speaker 4: It allowed us to live our fullest.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: Latino and we grew up speaking Spanish really in a Mexican immersive culture. But growing up there's a shame attached to that language, and a lot of our parents wanted to disconnect us from that language because they were afraid that we were not going to find the success in this country. So there's like this fear of keeping that mother tongue. Then it's a fear of like not knowing English. But I grew up in an immigrant community and that's what has built and created me. And then I made my way to radio here in La and I did radio with Ryan Seacres for twenty years. And then in between there in between my time there, I got pregnant with my first son, and I started thinking about my childhood growing up in an immigrant communit and being a shame of my language, of speaking Spanish and being a shame of my accent at times, and I didn't want my son to grow up feeling those just awful feelings that I feel just hold you back. So I thought about creating bilingual books that weren't just bilingual and language, but also celebrated culture and identity. And I pitched the idea to traditional publishers, and those that did get back to me said that my idea was just all over the place or that I didn't make any sense. And I was going through postpart and depression at that time as well, so I actually believed these words and got in my head. I started questioning who I am, Like, who do I think I am. I'm not a writer, I'm not an author, Like it's just silly, stupid ideas. And it wasn't until my son turned three years old and then we had a house fire and we lost everything that day. I remember driving in getting out of work, out of the show and driving and seeing fire trucks and police cars in front of my house and I'm like, what is going on. I remember just like leaving the car on park and just running through the block and I'm like, this is my house and they were like, ma'am, it's gone, it's gotten. And I went through this huge just depression and almost like questioning who I am as a human and like what is my purpose as a human being, as a mother, as a Latina, as just like what am I here for? And I remembered the idea of these children's books. So I said, I have to figure out a way to do this myself. I can't just wait on someone to say yes to me. So with the insurance money, you know, we got paid out and I was able to you know, uh, for those that know how insurance works, there's categories. There's a category category for the dwelling of the home. You're suppose, you know, you're supposed to build a house. You can't just take the money and run, like that's not going to happen unless you own the home up outright.
00:07:27
Speaker 4: You have to rebuild.
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Speaker 2: So there's a dwelling category, and there's a category for you know, just personal items that you lost in the fire. And with that check, I use some of that money to start Little Libte's with my best friend, a bilingual children's publishing company. Our first three books, I sent out those samples to Target within three months that we created the company, and Target called us immediately and said who's the publisher and that it's us and they're like, no, no, no, we mean like the publisher, not the author.
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Speaker 4: And I said, it's us.
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Speaker 2: We're right here in our living room having this conversation with you. And they're like, well, we want to order all three books and we want to have them in.
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Speaker 4: All our stores.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 2: This was in five months after we created this company. And then Barnes and Noble's called and they're like, wet, We've not seen books like these. And that was the beginning of this. Just like this life changing, purpose filled experience that I've this incredible journey of celebrating two languages and culture and identity.
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Speaker 4: It's just so special.
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Speaker 1: That's incredible, and it might it immediately makes me wonder, like, what a great example of something positive to come from an unfathomable tragedy, to literally lose everything and then go to something positive and to take that, I mean, what a huge risk to take, especially with insurance money, to say this is the dream that I had and I want to I'm going to take a stab at it. Can you like, what were those five months like before Target called with that amazing news? Was it a slow build. Were you terrified? Were you just like, were you passed the point of being terrified?
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Speaker 2: What was I like? Well, those five months, Yeah, I was in the zone. I honestly like now looking back, it feels like a blur because remember I was doing radio in the mornings here in La and that meant having to be at the studio at five am. I had a three year old at home as well, so I'd had to come home be a mom and then I put my baby with sleep and I remember staying up working with my business partner maybe till two or three in the morning. And I remember when we were first received our books. We spent the entire night till maybe like four packing these orders and shipping.
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Speaker 4: And I had to be.
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Speaker 2: At the office out of five Wow, But I didn't feel tired. I was like, it's such a this out of body experience. It's almost like God was inside me, just like leading the way and I was just like this vessel and I can describe it, describe it other than I just felt it was just this purpose that needed to be created.
00:10:28
Speaker 1: Those are some of the best stories where it's like something a passion inside you that overtakes everything and I you know that feeling like you can be mentally and physically drained at the same time fulfilled because you're working on something that you're so passionate about. It's interesting and honestly, like, I'm kind of floored to hear you say that, though, because your job working for Ryan for those twenty years, it's not like that's a stress free job, like you you know, that's you're the pressure that you're carrying and the impact that's a global brand, you know, it's it's not like not to disparage other people's jobs, but it's not like something that if you screw up here or there, nobody's gonna notice. Absolutely right, that's a huge okay, So that then makes me wonder this may be a good time to talk about bilingualism in America overall. When we pulled some statistics, I was kind of surprised to read this that apparently, from nineteen eighty to twenty eighteen, the percentage of multi lingual Americans so eighteen and older was in nineteen eighty nine point two percent. I just always assumed it was bigger. But that's what happens when you grow up in like a more diverse environment. I guess. So it went from nine point two percent in nineteen eighty to sixteen point nine percent, so almost seventeen percent in twenty eighteen. And most of that was because of increased immigration, but then plus people are finally recognizing the benefits of speaking multiple languages. There's the cognitive stuff, of course, but then huge economic benefits. You look at most other countries and people speak more than one language as a default. So what that opens up in terms of job opportunities, but then also in terms of cultural understanding and all of that. People are finally now kind of catching on to that, it seems. But all of that leads to a question about this focus on dual language education. Did you grow up always reading? Were you a big reader as a kid? And then you did answer this, but I'm hoping you can go into it a little more. What made you this passionate about starting dual language education through books? Like why books?
00:12:44
Speaker 2: I grew up reading books. I think it's one of those things that you're just born with it. I don't think I was taught to love to read. It was just innate in me. I remember my library card was like my greatest asset, and I'd walk down to the library and I'd check out like ten books and I would just come home and swallow them cool and I would just spend hours and it was just something that just kept me hopeful, and I continued reading my entire life and being pregnant. It allows you to remember, you know, traumas and wounds, and you're like, okay, it's my way to reset now as some other or as a parent, I have to do things differently now. And one of the things, well, two of the things was ensuring that my kids loved reading, and two to be proud of having this identity and this culture, something that I suppressed for many years as a teenager that I was embarrassed of. I remember taking pride in being on the phone with a boy and the boy telling me you sound like a white girl, and I was like, oh, I do like and I'll be so excited and it would make me so happy.
00:14:00
Speaker 4: And now looking back, like, how awful is that?
00:14:03
Speaker 3: Right?
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Speaker 2: So I'm like, okay, I have to find I need to I need to correct that, I need to maybe heal my inner child in some way. And remembering too, how beautiful the Spanish language is, and not just the beauty of it, but you go you understand how valuable in an accident is not just in our country but just globally, and it was. It became really important for me and that and that's the reason why, you know, I started a little libreals for the level of reading.
00:14:37
Speaker 4: And then the more I.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: Dug into understanding literacy in our country, I realized how heartbreaking the numbers are when it comes to children in their literacy levels upon graduation. What did you find just overall in the country?
00:14:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, what did you find?
00:14:56
Speaker 1: Because when we were researching this there I was of two minds where there were some data sets I saw where I was like, oh, how is this happening in America that we have a limited reading level? And then when you compare it to other countries, I also had the opposite feeling where I'm like, okay, well we have a national literacy rate of just under eighty percent and the you know, you hear people it should be one hundred percent. And then you look at like, well, which countries actually have one hundred percent. It's like Finland, which is small, homogeneous and everything is paid for by the government, so we're never going to have that. And then the other countries that say they have one hundred percent literacy rate are like North Korea or Cuba, and Cuba may because they're communists, but North Korea obviously you can't believe the numbers that are coming out of there. So then I was like, okay, well, seventy nine percent is pretty good globally if you're comparing it to other countries. But to your point, what were those things that the more specific data sets of communities and kids and not just whether they can read, period but at what level? Like can you talk me through the things that surprised you and made you go, WHOA, this is not okay, we have.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: To do better. So right now, roughly about forty percent of fourth graders do not even meet the basic level of reading proficiency.
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Speaker 1: WHOA throughout the US.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Throughout the US, not it doesn't matter background raisky, it's throughout the US. And then as they get older, that number doesn't change much. Thirty percent of eighth graders do not meet basic reading level, And as seeing those numbers at face value, you're like, oh, you know, what does it matter? Well, it matters because if we're not reading, then we're not understanding, we're not contributing. We're not thinking for ourselves. I think that's really the big thing that I try to explain to parents is if our children cannot read, they cannot think for themselves, and somebody else will be doing the thinking for them. And when you look at history in our country, this is not just right now. You know, you can look back and this has been happening since the beginning of our country's history, where the ruling class has been wanting to keep its population at this, you know, having this reading level, because that's how you keep control. But then you say those things to parents and that you sound like you're a conspiracy theorist.
00:17:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, right, but you know, but.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: Those are the trends, and I think you know, for me as a Latina, those numbers are a lot lower. Over forty percent of or Latino kids are graduating high school with the fourth grade reading level, and it should be like a national emergency, and it just feels like no one's really talking about it.
00:17:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what a disadvantage that puts those young people at if they're graduate you're saying they're graduating high school with a fourth grade reading level.
00:17:58
Speaker 4: Yes, and that's just hard breaking.
00:18:06
Speaker 1: Do you see in this work that you do. I mean the technology AI, the fact that we're recording this podcast using technology. I mean somebody would say, well, it doesn't matter that you have a fourth grade reading level. I can just put my lease into chat GPT and it'll tell me what I need to know. I mean, I guess that's true. But are you are you practically seeing people do these things or what?
00:18:33
Speaker 2: Like?
00:18:33
Speaker 1: What does the future look like if if we haven't rectified this, I.
00:18:36
Speaker 2: Think for me, what the future looks like? It looks really scary. We can't think for ourselves. Even if AI is helping you with the application or just basic reading tasks, if you don't even understand what AI is saying to you, I mean, what does that say about all of us? Right? That means we're going to be just easily manipulated. Yeah, and I think that's that's my fear.
00:19:02
Speaker 1: What are the stories you're hearing from parents? Because I mean you mentioned this also, and I know both my parents worked. When I was a kid, I had a key around my neck. We'd walk home from school and unlock the door and then you just you're not allowed to open the door for anybody till somebody's home.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: That kind of thing.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: But so, how are parents helping their kids, how are they encouraging them if they're physically not home to read to them. What are the challenges they're saying there? And then how does something like the libros fill that gap?
00:19:32
Speaker 2: You know, that's actually a really common question. No, if I'm at home, how can I how can I strip the iPad away from my son because or my daughter because I'm at home to monitor or supervise. And the reality is that many of these kids depend on the leadership of their school teachers administrators, and we're seeing budget cuts in schools right now and a lot of book banning as well, and a lot of banning not just only certain subjects, but also languages.
00:20:10
Speaker 4: It's you know, it's almost like this country is just afraid to grow.
00:20:18
Speaker 2: So when I speak to parents, and you know, the reality is that as a community who doesn't have the tools and the resources we do have to work three times as hard. And that means not just at our place of work, but also at home as a parent. And the reality is like, okay, just bring in books at home, bring more books into your home, and little liberals, our books are in English and Spanish, some of these households only speak Spanish, some of the parents, the grandparents, and our books allow for multi generational families to be able to bring these stories home and just read to their children. It's as important, you know, I say to them, is as important as brushing your teeth.
00:21:03
Speaker 4: You brush your teeth that night, and.
00:21:04
Speaker 2: Then you pick up that book, even if it's just five minutes, but just you know, pick it up and either read to your child or have your child read out loud to you. Because once the reading someplace, the math comes naturally, the science, the history, everything just makes sense for all the kids.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: You're giving me chills with when you outline all of the challenges and the book banning thing and educational budget cuts are something I hear over and over again in a bunch of different topics and realms with friends who work in these industries, and it's obviously really scary. At the same time, I see this positive in talking to you and seeing the passion that you have for this. You've been running Libros with your co founder for over ten years now, right, You started in twenty fourteen, which politically in this country, budgetarily economically, we've gone through some pretty big swings. Those ten years. The fact that you're still around and thriving ten years later shows us that there is something positive there. Can you talk about what you've observed from the time you started to now, like how has the dual language space changed?
00:22:15
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it was interesting, Like I mentioned, when I pitched the idea to the publishers, those that did get back to me said, this idea is all over the place, doesn't really make any sense.
00:22:30
Speaker 4: But I knew in.
00:22:31
Speaker 2: My heart because of what I saw me as a mother and just other mothers around me in my community. To us, this bouncing from one language to another just comes really naturally. It's very much part of who we are. It didn't feel forced and creating these books and the way they were celebrated by our community, and not just our community, but just parents who see the value and lingual literacy who are like you know what, I understand. We're not of Latino descent, however, I understand how valuable it is to raise to immerse my child and not just not even like two languages, two or three four languages, because kids are sponges. You know, a five year old can learn five languages, like it's like they're eating potato chips that easy. So seeing that and then seeing how the publishing industry has shifted and understanding the value of not just bilingual literacy, but also these voices that you wouldn't you wouldn't see in the in the publishing industry ten years ago, the value of Latino voices, of Asian voices, of African American voices. We're seeing that now because you know, and I'm proud to say that we kind of started that movement within the publishing industry in children's books.
00:23:55
Speaker 4: They're like, Okay, they saw.
00:23:56
Speaker 2: What we were doing, and they're like, Okay, it does work. Creating books that not just Latino kids, but all kids can see themselves in. Those are the stories that stay with you and you're like, Okay, this person looks like me, sounds like me, talks like me. You know, I can be that. I can be this superhero. I can be this you know, extraordinary astronaut and go to space.
00:24:21
Speaker 4: It just feels attainable.
00:24:23
Speaker 1: I also want to give your business flowers here for a second, when did you leave Ryan Seacrest and make Lostly Bros. The full time your full time job?
00:24:35
Speaker 2: So I ended up leaving Ryan in twenty twenty two. Okay, I called him crying, Oh I'm so sorry, but I have to leave you. And he's like, I've been waiting on this phone call for a while. Patty.
00:24:51
Speaker 4: He's like, I knew it.
00:24:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, you know, he's like you and he said such wonderful things, and he's like, I'm just so proud of you. I just I knew it. She was like, you're meant to do more and I said, yeah.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two is then a big year for you because you guys also acquired a managing share of Chinese English children's publisher, which was created by two Chinese American moms called Biddy Bo. Was twenty twenty two like a big year in other senses? And what made you want to acquire that company?
00:25:23
Speaker 2: So it was a huge year for us because that year we were also looking at an for investors and we had a few meetings with some big pockets and it just didn't feel right. So we made the decision to instead of selling a portion of our company to somebody who's already a millionaire, we decided to sell the company to our community.
00:25:50
Speaker 1: Oh wow cool.
00:25:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we did.
00:25:52
Speaker 2: A crowdfunding campaign and we raised two million dollars in four days. And we met this wonderful duo to Asian American mothers who were also building something similar to what we are building, but in the in the Chinese American market, and we reached out to We talked, and we both realized that our missions are very much aligned, and we said, look, we've already done this for ten years.
00:26:24
Speaker 4: We know what it takes and the challenges.
00:26:28
Speaker 2: Let us help you get there faster because we also understand, you know, the future is bilingual, and the more languages our children know, the better they're prepared for this global world. And it's just so wonderful to also see the similarities in communities, just how parents are so excited to introduce these traditions and these in these culture and languages without the fear that many of our older relatives, older generations felt. You hear stories of older Latinos who are like, there's no way I could have spoken a war in Spanish at school. I would have gotten punished. And now you see this openness, the celebration of language and identity, and I just think that, you know, it's what makes this country stronger, regardless of what our politicians in our our administration may want to say.
00:27:23
Speaker 1: It's funny. You reminded me of like all the times when I'm speaking good rout there Hindi and there's somebody in the room who's like monolingual and deeply insecure that we're talking about them, I'm like, calm down, we are not talking about Okay, maybe sometimes we're talking about you, but generally we're not talking about you. You're totally fine, don't worry about it.
00:27:46
Speaker 2: But it feels like home when you speak that language, doesn't.
00:27:48
Speaker 1: It, Yes, it doesn't. Actually, well, you know, those experiences also kind of remind me that I enjoy being able to, like if it's a group conversation and people are speaking in multiple languages and not everybody is bi lingual, I enjoy like making sure that everybody's part of the conversation and doing like a quick translation of what somebody's saying, or that kind of a thing like to me that that brings people together, and it's more of like a thriving kind of thing. And the more that I thought about that, the more that it also then made me curious as I heard you were talking like you know, back in the day, late nineteenth early twentieth century, there were these I'll put this in quotes because I hate the term Americanization campaigns that pushed the idea of English only in schooling. And now that we live in a world where people it seems like things are split, right, things are more and more polarized these days, where you have people who, even if they're not buy or multilingual themselves, understand, okay, if you're learning Spanish, Arabic, Hindi or Chinese, you're suddenly at this elevated, elevated level of what you can do in the world tomorrow, you know, if you're, if you're And then you simultaneously have people who are like, well, why everybody speaks English? Everybody else who comes here should only speak English. You know, there's like it seems getting like it's getting more polarized, and I'm curious. You're you're acquiring other companies, you're multi lingual, you're there in a market for kids at a time when people seem to be really pulling back. I mean, it was beautiful that there are teachers out there who are just making sure that your books are available to their students if they live in places where they're undergoing those cuts. I guess I'm curious for the business side of this conversation, but I'm also curious, just as a person who's passionate about this kind of work, what does it feel like to be in the middle of such polarizing times.
00:29:44
Speaker 2: I think how you and I both know that history always repeats itself, it just comes in a different outfit.
00:29:54
Speaker 4: So we've been through this before.
00:29:56
Speaker 2: You know, we can go back to you know, just in the nineteen sixties here in East lay in some schools in Texas, there were walkouts happening from students who were demanding just quality education, which also included Spanish language teachers or just teachers that look like them. And it took the efforts of these young students for many of these school districts to adopt new ways of, you know, of supplying this type of education to our students. So I think as a Latina who has seen the challenges my parents have faced, the challenges that I have faced, and what we're actually currently facing right now with these you know, just horrific deportations happening all across the country, it feels like the work that we're doing is just that more important because there's so much uncertainty, so we have to become the people we needed growing up.
00:31:03
Speaker 4: I'm someone who's hopeful and regardless.
00:31:05
Speaker 2: Of what's happening in all the noise, I feel, you know, we're resilient and we always find a way to get through the challenges that we face historically. I mean, just a few days ago, I was just talking to my son. I said, look, can you like, can you even like the reason we're here? And I don't want to get all I don't want us to go that deep. And I'm like, it's over eight thousand generations that have survived wars, colonization, like plagues, everything under the sun, and yet our lineage survived at all, and we're right here.
00:31:40
Speaker 4: I am an optimist.
00:31:42
Speaker 2: I believe there's a there's this is a season that we're going through, and we're going to get through it even stronger because that's just what we do as humans.
00:31:58
Speaker 1: Since you mentioned your kids, then also makes me wonder, like, what's their relationship with Spanish and English and how is it different from yours.
00:32:06
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think they definitely are growing up differently than I did. And I acknowledge that I had a first row relationship to my culture and identity. Now as a parent, being a Racing second generation kids, I actually have to work to ensure that the culture and identity stays alive. And it's incredible that I can have a conversation with them in English and Spanish, and I'm very intentional about making sure that they eat traditional foods that you know, we're playing traditional music at home. You know, they're not going to have my same experience or not. When I tell them stories of the challenges that I went through, you know, growing up as a childhood immigrants, they think I'm telling the story of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. You know, that's how they see it, because you know, they don't they don't know. They're comfortable in their own bedrooms. I didn't have my own bedroom until I was twenty one. Yeah, so it's a blessing, right, I think, you know. And I talked to my mother about this and I and I say, you know, I feel like I'm doing it wrong, and she's like, you know, this is why I came to this country. So you can tell those stories to them and they don't have to go through what we went through.
00:33:26
Speaker 4: Now they're just stories.
00:33:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that just that floored me a little bit because I don't have kids, but my brother does, so I have a niece and nephew, and it's very much that my brother is not bilingual, even though I am. He can understand good Drati, but he he doesn't really speak it. And so the kids are still young. But I feel like a lot of those stories because I'm older and I'm the uncle, I'm like, I guess that falls on me and Grandma and grandpa. You know, like you go to Grandma's house and there's a bed for you to sleep, And when I went to my grandma's house, we all slept on the floor like that just there was it was one room. It was a one room apartment.
00:34:07
Speaker 4: So they will never know.
00:34:08
Speaker 2: They will not know.
00:34:09
Speaker 1: And we've shown them that they've gone to India on a trip, and I you know, we tried to make it a point to show them and to give them the like the tactile experiences of what things are.
00:34:19
Speaker 2: So that requires, you know, it's work, right, it's intentional having to introduce them to this.
00:34:24
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeahs to as opposed to it should be fun and it should be it should be crazy, and it should be there should be nightmare days and you know all of that, Like I want them to understand. I want them to get those experiences wherever possible. So it's I've never actually, i think, explicitly talked with anybody about that. So hearing your experience being quite similar as the mom to just me having not a backseat. But you know, I'm like a degree removed because I'm the uncle. But it makes me feel a little less crazy. So thank you for thank you for sharing that.
00:34:57
Speaker 2: No, but it's again, it's a responsibility that we have because you know, I think are this generation forgets the challenges and the sacrifices that the generation before had to make.
00:35:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, the the the insecurity that seems to drive the English only movement. I don't think I will ever fully understand.
00:35:23
Speaker 4: But it's just crazy.
00:35:25
Speaker 2: You have. In Latin America, it's practical you are required to speak a second language, and also in other countries around the world sometimes like at night on like scrolling on TikTok and I'm watching videos of schools and and in in China, Japan, and I'm just like, these kids are going to rule the world, and here and here we are fighting over whether you know, English should be the only language in this country or not. Well, you know, you have other other kids in other countries. Just it's it's crazy. So I think, you know, in twenty years from now, when we see these kids growing up and we're wondering what happened, and well, this is what happened. These other countries are prioritizing education, prioritizing language, while we are over here complaining about our neighbor.
00:36:17
Speaker 1: Our cultural priorities right now seem to be a little out of whack compared to other countries. You articulated it really well, the idea that we're fighting over this when the rest of the world is continuing to move on and compete against us and win, is like we're having that this is a distraction, you guys, like why are we why are we taking the bait on this distraction? Well, that then brings me to I think one of the one of the last questions I was gonna maybe leave on is, given all of that, what are the things that you find to be more urgent right now? And then what are you excited and hopeful about?
00:36:57
Speaker 2: What do I find most urgent right now? Ensuring that our teachers are well funded, well paid, They're so gracious, and we don't respect them enough in this country, we don't value them enough. We should definitely increase our education budget, help mothers with childcare. And one am I hopeful. I'm hopeful about everything. It's I don't allow them to take our joy away, even when we're faced with these fights. I look back at those first three months of building Little Libros. I was in the zone. I was a new mother, I had a full time job, but I was in the zone. I was like laser focus on this dream and it felt like a spiritual experience. And I like to see that. I like to feel that like that every day, that, regardless of the noise, our time here is really short and we only we There's only so much we can do in that time that we're given. And there's this wonderful quote by Emiliano Sabata, a Mexican revolutionary. He says it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees, and I think that's the way we should all live life.
00:38:27
Speaker 1: Totally agree, and a beautiful quote to end on. Patti Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining.
00:38:33
Speaker 4: Us, Thank you for having me.
00:38:39
Speaker 1: That was my incredible guest. Patti Rodriguez, the previous senior producer of On Air with Ryan Seacrest and the co founder of the bilingual children's publishing company Lil Libros. Here we Go again as a production of iHeart Podcasts and Snapoo Media in association with New Metric Media. Our executive producers are me Kal Penn, Ed Helms, Mike Falbo, Alyssa Martino, Andy Kim, Pat Kelly, Chris Kelly, and Dylan Fagan. Meghan tan Is our producer and writer. Dave Shumka is our producer and editor. Our consulting producer is Romin Borsolino. Tory Smith is our associate producer. Theme music by Chris Kelly, logo by Matt Gosson, Legal review from Daniel Welsh, Caroline Johnson and Meghan Halson. Special thanks to Glenn Bassner, Isaac Dunham, Adam Horn, Lane Klein and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but especially Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman and Nikki Etour. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Speaker 1: Growing up. When you know, my parents dropped me off at school. I would hear other parents telling their kids, I love you, have a great day, be good, do anything bad, and I'll be back here with my house slipper. In tons of languages, people would speak Polish and Yiddish and Italian. For me, it was goodrati And as a kid who grew up in Jersey in the nineteen eighties, having multiple languages glide passed your ears was as common as well as common as like your one buddy who insisted that his uncle was in the mafia and if you needed anything to just let him know. And by the way, I know that sounds like a total stereotype, but every kid who grew up in the New Jersey in the nineteen eighties like had this one friend, even if you were like eight years old. Well, look, I don't have to tell you that. Here in the United States, it was not always like this. Native Americans had fear instilled into them if they spoke their language at the mandatory schools they had to attend. During World War One, Germans had their language targeted. Specific laws were made in Iowa and across the Midwest that prohibited the use of any foreign language in public spaces. But now, when I visit my parents in my old New Jersey neighborhood, and when I walk down the street of my own New York City neighborhood, languages weave in and out of sidewalks and subways and restaurants. Speaking multiple languages is often seen as an asset.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: You know, the future is bilingual, and the more languages our children know, the better they're prepared.
00:01:24
Speaker 1: Today, I'm speaking with Patti Rodriguez, the co founder of Lil Libros, a bilingual children's publishing company, about transforming the narrative of bilingualism in America.
00:01:35
Speaker 3: Here we Go again again Again.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Calpen and this is Here we Go Again, a show that takes today's trends and headlines and asks why does history keep repeating itself?
00:01:50
Speaker 3: Here we go?
00:02:06
Speaker 4: Good morning, How are you?
00:02:08
Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. I was excited to talk to you, especially today, because we kept coming back to this idea of multi lingualism or bilingualism. I grew up bilingual as well. I speak good Roati and English. English was my first language. But I remember growing up just feeling like you know, I grew up in a relatively diverse suburb of New York in New Jersey. And when I say relatively diverse, I always feel like I have to qualify. It was like white diversity. It was like a white melting pot. So I never necessarily felt like the fact that I was bilingual meant that I was any less American. In fact that it was always installed at us. It is that like that actually made you more American. But then there was also that I do remember being sometimes a bit shy about switching in and out of English and good Roati in public places. And it wasn't from a sense of shame. I just remember feeling, well, it's not Italian or Spanish, so it's not like it's going to sound weird to people, you know, at fourteen, like Gudrati is not a sexy language. It's not Italian, it's not Spanish. Like you're aware of that, right. All of which is to say, I was very excited to talk to you because of your background, because of what you do. You have a really impressive professional resume in every sense. And so if we could start at the very beginning and just tell us about you, where were you born, where did you grow up in what languages did you speak growing up.
00:03:35
Speaker 4: I was born in Los Angeles.
00:03:37
Speaker 2: I was raised in La County back in the eighties, shortly after Reagan signed the Amnesty bill that gave close to three million immigrants amnesty, essentially allowing communities to come out of the shadows, my parents being one of them.
00:03:55
Speaker 4: It allowed us to live our fullest.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: Latino and we grew up speaking Spanish really in a Mexican immersive culture. But growing up there's a shame attached to that language, and a lot of our parents wanted to disconnect us from that language because they were afraid that we were not going to find the success in this country. So there's like this fear of keeping that mother tongue. Then it's a fear of like not knowing English. But I grew up in an immigrant community and that's what has built and created me. And then I made my way to radio here in La and I did radio with Ryan Seacres for twenty years. And then in between there in between my time there, I got pregnant with my first son, and I started thinking about my childhood growing up in an immigrant communit and being a shame of my language, of speaking Spanish and being a shame of my accent at times, and I didn't want my son to grow up feeling those just awful feelings that I feel just hold you back. So I thought about creating bilingual books that weren't just bilingual and language, but also celebrated culture and identity. And I pitched the idea to traditional publishers, and those that did get back to me said that my idea was just all over the place or that I didn't make any sense. And I was going through postpart and depression at that time as well, so I actually believed these words and got in my head. I started questioning who I am, Like, who do I think I am. I'm not a writer, I'm not an author, Like it's just silly, stupid ideas. And it wasn't until my son turned three years old and then we had a house fire and we lost everything that day. I remember driving in getting out of work, out of the show and driving and seeing fire trucks and police cars in front of my house and I'm like, what is going on. I remember just like leaving the car on park and just running through the block and I'm like, this is my house and they were like, ma'am, it's gone, it's gotten. And I went through this huge just depression and almost like questioning who I am as a human and like what is my purpose as a human being, as a mother, as a Latina, as just like what am I here for? And I remembered the idea of these children's books. So I said, I have to figure out a way to do this myself. I can't just wait on someone to say yes to me. So with the insurance money, you know, we got paid out and I was able to you know, uh, for those that know how insurance works, there's categories. There's a category category for the dwelling of the home. You're suppose, you know, you're supposed to build a house. You can't just take the money and run, like that's not going to happen unless you own the home up outright.
00:07:27
Speaker 4: You have to rebuild.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: So there's a dwelling category, and there's a category for you know, just personal items that you lost in the fire. And with that check, I use some of that money to start Little Libte's with my best friend, a bilingual children's publishing company. Our first three books, I sent out those samples to Target within three months that we created the company, and Target called us immediately and said who's the publisher and that it's us and they're like, no, no, no, we mean like the publisher, not the author.
00:08:04
Speaker 4: And I said, it's us.
00:08:07
Speaker 2: We're right here in our living room having this conversation with you. And they're like, well, we want to order all three books and we want to have them in.
00:08:14
Speaker 4: All our stores.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:08:16
Speaker 2: This was in five months after we created this company. And then Barnes and Noble's called and they're like, wet, We've not seen books like these. And that was the beginning of this. Just like this life changing, purpose filled experience that I've this incredible journey of celebrating two languages and culture and identity.
00:08:40
Speaker 4: It's just so special.
00:08:42
Speaker 1: That's incredible, and it might it immediately makes me wonder, like, what a great example of something positive to come from an unfathomable tragedy, to literally lose everything and then go to something positive and to take that, I mean, what a huge risk to take, especially with insurance money, to say this is the dream that I had and I want to I'm going to take a stab at it. Can you like, what were those five months like before Target called with that amazing news? Was it a slow build. Were you terrified? Were you just like, were you passed the point of being terrified?
00:09:20
Speaker 2: What was I like? Well, those five months, Yeah, I was in the zone. I honestly like now looking back, it feels like a blur because remember I was doing radio in the mornings here in La and that meant having to be at the studio at five am. I had a three year old at home as well, so I'd had to come home be a mom and then I put my baby with sleep and I remember staying up working with my business partner maybe till two or three in the morning. And I remember when we were first received our books. We spent the entire night till maybe like four packing these orders and shipping.
00:10:03
Speaker 4: And I had to be.
00:10:03
Speaker 2: At the office out of five Wow, But I didn't feel tired. I was like, it's such a this out of body experience. It's almost like God was inside me, just like leading the way and I was just like this vessel and I can describe it, describe it other than I just felt it was just this purpose that needed to be created.
00:10:28
Speaker 1: Those are some of the best stories where it's like something a passion inside you that overtakes everything and I you know that feeling like you can be mentally and physically drained at the same time fulfilled because you're working on something that you're so passionate about. It's interesting and honestly, like, I'm kind of floored to hear you say that, though, because your job working for Ryan for those twenty years, it's not like that's a stress free job, like you you know, that's you're the pressure that you're carrying and the impact that's a global brand, you know, it's it's not like not to disparage other people's jobs, but it's not like something that if you screw up here or there, nobody's gonna notice. Absolutely right, that's a huge okay, So that then makes me wonder this may be a good time to talk about bilingualism in America overall. When we pulled some statistics, I was kind of surprised to read this that apparently, from nineteen eighty to twenty eighteen, the percentage of multi lingual Americans so eighteen and older was in nineteen eighty nine point two percent. I just always assumed it was bigger. But that's what happens when you grow up in like a more diverse environment. I guess. So it went from nine point two percent in nineteen eighty to sixteen point nine percent, so almost seventeen percent in twenty eighteen. And most of that was because of increased immigration, but then plus people are finally recognizing the benefits of speaking multiple languages. There's the cognitive stuff, of course, but then huge economic benefits. You look at most other countries and people speak more than one language as a default. So what that opens up in terms of job opportunities, but then also in terms of cultural understanding and all of that. People are finally now kind of catching on to that, it seems. But all of that leads to a question about this focus on dual language education. Did you grow up always reading? Were you a big reader as a kid? And then you did answer this, but I'm hoping you can go into it a little more. What made you this passionate about starting dual language education through books? Like why books?
00:12:44
Speaker 2: I grew up reading books. I think it's one of those things that you're just born with it. I don't think I was taught to love to read. It was just innate in me. I remember my library card was like my greatest asset, and I'd walk down to the library and I'd check out like ten books and I would just come home and swallow them cool and I would just spend hours and it was just something that just kept me hopeful, and I continued reading my entire life and being pregnant. It allows you to remember, you know, traumas and wounds, and you're like, okay, it's my way to reset now as some other or as a parent, I have to do things differently now. And one of the things, well, two of the things was ensuring that my kids loved reading, and two to be proud of having this identity and this culture, something that I suppressed for many years as a teenager that I was embarrassed of. I remember taking pride in being on the phone with a boy and the boy telling me you sound like a white girl, and I was like, oh, I do like and I'll be so excited and it would make me so happy.
00:14:00
Speaker 4: And now looking back, like, how awful is that?
00:14:03
Speaker 3: Right?
00:14:04
Speaker 2: So I'm like, okay, I have to find I need to I need to correct that, I need to maybe heal my inner child in some way. And remembering too, how beautiful the Spanish language is, and not just the beauty of it, but you go you understand how valuable in an accident is not just in our country but just globally, and it was. It became really important for me and that and that's the reason why, you know, I started a little libreals for the level of reading.
00:14:37
Speaker 4: And then the more I.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: Dug into understanding literacy in our country, I realized how heartbreaking the numbers are when it comes to children in their literacy levels upon graduation. What did you find just overall in the country?
00:14:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, what did you find?
00:14:56
Speaker 1: Because when we were researching this there I was of two minds where there were some data sets I saw where I was like, oh, how is this happening in America that we have a limited reading level? And then when you compare it to other countries, I also had the opposite feeling where I'm like, okay, well we have a national literacy rate of just under eighty percent and the you know, you hear people it should be one hundred percent. And then you look at like, well, which countries actually have one hundred percent. It's like Finland, which is small, homogeneous and everything is paid for by the government, so we're never going to have that. And then the other countries that say they have one hundred percent literacy rate are like North Korea or Cuba, and Cuba may because they're communists, but North Korea obviously you can't believe the numbers that are coming out of there. So then I was like, okay, well, seventy nine percent is pretty good globally if you're comparing it to other countries. But to your point, what were those things that the more specific data sets of communities and kids and not just whether they can read, period but at what level? Like can you talk me through the things that surprised you and made you go, WHOA, this is not okay, we have.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: To do better. So right now, roughly about forty percent of fourth graders do not even meet the basic level of reading proficiency.
00:16:11
Speaker 1: WHOA throughout the US.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Throughout the US, not it doesn't matter background raisky, it's throughout the US. And then as they get older, that number doesn't change much. Thirty percent of eighth graders do not meet basic reading level, And as seeing those numbers at face value, you're like, oh, you know, what does it matter? Well, it matters because if we're not reading, then we're not understanding, we're not contributing. We're not thinking for ourselves. I think that's really the big thing that I try to explain to parents is if our children cannot read, they cannot think for themselves, and somebody else will be doing the thinking for them. And when you look at history in our country, this is not just right now. You know, you can look back and this has been happening since the beginning of our country's history, where the ruling class has been wanting to keep its population at this, you know, having this reading level, because that's how you keep control. But then you say those things to parents and that you sound like you're a conspiracy theorist.
00:17:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, right, but you know, but.
00:17:28
Speaker 2: Those are the trends, and I think you know, for me as a Latina, those numbers are a lot lower. Over forty percent of or Latino kids are graduating high school with the fourth grade reading level, and it should be like a national emergency, and it just feels like no one's really talking about it.
00:17:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what a disadvantage that puts those young people at if they're graduate you're saying they're graduating high school with a fourth grade reading level.
00:17:58
Speaker 4: Yes, and that's just hard breaking.
00:18:06
Speaker 1: Do you see in this work that you do. I mean the technology AI, the fact that we're recording this podcast using technology. I mean somebody would say, well, it doesn't matter that you have a fourth grade reading level. I can just put my lease into chat GPT and it'll tell me what I need to know. I mean, I guess that's true. But are you are you practically seeing people do these things or what?
00:18:33
Speaker 2: Like?
00:18:33
Speaker 1: What does the future look like if if we haven't rectified this, I.
00:18:36
Speaker 2: Think for me, what the future looks like? It looks really scary. We can't think for ourselves. Even if AI is helping you with the application or just basic reading tasks, if you don't even understand what AI is saying to you, I mean, what does that say about all of us? Right? That means we're going to be just easily manipulated. Yeah, and I think that's that's my fear.
00:19:02
Speaker 1: What are the stories you're hearing from parents? Because I mean you mentioned this also, and I know both my parents worked. When I was a kid, I had a key around my neck. We'd walk home from school and unlock the door and then you just you're not allowed to open the door for anybody till somebody's home.
00:19:16
Speaker 2: That kind of thing.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: But so, how are parents helping their kids, how are they encouraging them if they're physically not home to read to them. What are the challenges they're saying there? And then how does something like the libros fill that gap?
00:19:32
Speaker 2: You know, that's actually a really common question. No, if I'm at home, how can I how can I strip the iPad away from my son because or my daughter because I'm at home to monitor or supervise. And the reality is that many of these kids depend on the leadership of their school teachers administrators, and we're seeing budget cuts in schools right now and a lot of book banning as well, and a lot of banning not just only certain subjects, but also languages.
00:20:10
Speaker 4: It's you know, it's almost like this country is just afraid to grow.
00:20:18
Speaker 2: So when I speak to parents, and you know, the reality is that as a community who doesn't have the tools and the resources we do have to work three times as hard. And that means not just at our place of work, but also at home as a parent. And the reality is like, okay, just bring in books at home, bring more books into your home, and little liberals, our books are in English and Spanish, some of these households only speak Spanish, some of the parents, the grandparents, and our books allow for multi generational families to be able to bring these stories home and just read to their children. It's as important, you know, I say to them, is as important as brushing your teeth.
00:21:03
Speaker 4: You brush your teeth that night, and.
00:21:04
Speaker 2: Then you pick up that book, even if it's just five minutes, but just you know, pick it up and either read to your child or have your child read out loud to you. Because once the reading someplace, the math comes naturally, the science, the history, everything just makes sense for all the kids.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: You're giving me chills with when you outline all of the challenges and the book banning thing and educational budget cuts are something I hear over and over again in a bunch of different topics and realms with friends who work in these industries, and it's obviously really scary. At the same time, I see this positive in talking to you and seeing the passion that you have for this. You've been running Libros with your co founder for over ten years now, right, You started in twenty fourteen, which politically in this country, budgetarily economically, we've gone through some pretty big swings. Those ten years. The fact that you're still around and thriving ten years later shows us that there is something positive there. Can you talk about what you've observed from the time you started to now, like how has the dual language space changed?
00:22:15
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it was interesting, Like I mentioned, when I pitched the idea to the publishers, those that did get back to me said, this idea is all over the place, doesn't really make any sense.
00:22:30
Speaker 4: But I knew in.
00:22:31
Speaker 2: My heart because of what I saw me as a mother and just other mothers around me in my community. To us, this bouncing from one language to another just comes really naturally. It's very much part of who we are. It didn't feel forced and creating these books and the way they were celebrated by our community, and not just our community, but just parents who see the value and lingual literacy who are like you know what, I understand. We're not of Latino descent, however, I understand how valuable it is to raise to immerse my child and not just not even like two languages, two or three four languages, because kids are sponges. You know, a five year old can learn five languages, like it's like they're eating potato chips that easy. So seeing that and then seeing how the publishing industry has shifted and understanding the value of not just bilingual literacy, but also these voices that you wouldn't you wouldn't see in the in the publishing industry ten years ago, the value of Latino voices, of Asian voices, of African American voices. We're seeing that now because you know, and I'm proud to say that we kind of started that movement within the publishing industry in children's books.
00:23:55
Speaker 4: They're like, Okay, they saw.
00:23:56
Speaker 2: What we were doing, and they're like, Okay, it does work. Creating books that not just Latino kids, but all kids can see themselves in. Those are the stories that stay with you and you're like, Okay, this person looks like me, sounds like me, talks like me. You know, I can be that. I can be this superhero. I can be this you know, extraordinary astronaut and go to space.
00:24:21
Speaker 4: It just feels attainable.
00:24:23
Speaker 1: I also want to give your business flowers here for a second, when did you leave Ryan Seacrest and make Lostly Bros. The full time your full time job?
00:24:35
Speaker 2: So I ended up leaving Ryan in twenty twenty two. Okay, I called him crying, Oh I'm so sorry, but I have to leave you. And he's like, I've been waiting on this phone call for a while. Patty.
00:24:51
Speaker 4: He's like, I knew it.
00:24:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, you know, he's like you and he said such wonderful things, and he's like, I'm just so proud of you. I just I knew it. She was like, you're meant to do more and I said, yeah.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two is then a big year for you because you guys also acquired a managing share of Chinese English children's publisher, which was created by two Chinese American moms called Biddy Bo. Was twenty twenty two like a big year in other senses? And what made you want to acquire that company?
00:25:23
Speaker 2: So it was a huge year for us because that year we were also looking at an for investors and we had a few meetings with some big pockets and it just didn't feel right. So we made the decision to instead of selling a portion of our company to somebody who's already a millionaire, we decided to sell the company to our community.
00:25:50
Speaker 1: Oh wow cool.
00:25:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we did.
00:25:52
Speaker 2: A crowdfunding campaign and we raised two million dollars in four days. And we met this wonderful duo to Asian American mothers who were also building something similar to what we are building, but in the in the Chinese American market, and we reached out to We talked, and we both realized that our missions are very much aligned, and we said, look, we've already done this for ten years.
00:26:24
Speaker 4: We know what it takes and the challenges.
00:26:28
Speaker 2: Let us help you get there faster because we also understand, you know, the future is bilingual, and the more languages our children know, the better they're prepared for this global world. And it's just so wonderful to also see the similarities in communities, just how parents are so excited to introduce these traditions and these in these culture and languages without the fear that many of our older relatives, older generations felt. You hear stories of older Latinos who are like, there's no way I could have spoken a war in Spanish at school. I would have gotten punished. And now you see this openness, the celebration of language and identity, and I just think that, you know, it's what makes this country stronger, regardless of what our politicians in our our administration may want to say.
00:27:23
Speaker 1: It's funny. You reminded me of like all the times when I'm speaking good rout there Hindi and there's somebody in the room who's like monolingual and deeply insecure that we're talking about them, I'm like, calm down, we are not talking about Okay, maybe sometimes we're talking about you, but generally we're not talking about you. You're totally fine, don't worry about it.
00:27:46
Speaker 2: But it feels like home when you speak that language, doesn't.
00:27:48
Speaker 1: It, Yes, it doesn't. Actually, well, you know, those experiences also kind of remind me that I enjoy being able to, like if it's a group conversation and people are speaking in multiple languages and not everybody is bi lingual, I enjoy like making sure that everybody's part of the conversation and doing like a quick translation of what somebody's saying, or that kind of a thing like to me that that brings people together, and it's more of like a thriving kind of thing. And the more that I thought about that, the more that it also then made me curious as I heard you were talking like you know, back in the day, late nineteenth early twentieth century, there were these I'll put this in quotes because I hate the term Americanization campaigns that pushed the idea of English only in schooling. And now that we live in a world where people it seems like things are split, right, things are more and more polarized these days, where you have people who, even if they're not buy or multilingual themselves, understand, okay, if you're learning Spanish, Arabic, Hindi or Chinese, you're suddenly at this elevated, elevated level of what you can do in the world tomorrow, you know, if you're, if you're And then you simultaneously have people who are like, well, why everybody speaks English? Everybody else who comes here should only speak English. You know, there's like it seems getting like it's getting more polarized, and I'm curious. You're you're acquiring other companies, you're multi lingual, you're there in a market for kids at a time when people seem to be really pulling back. I mean, it was beautiful that there are teachers out there who are just making sure that your books are available to their students if they live in places where they're undergoing those cuts. I guess I'm curious for the business side of this conversation, but I'm also curious, just as a person who's passionate about this kind of work, what does it feel like to be in the middle of such polarizing times.
00:29:44
Speaker 2: I think how you and I both know that history always repeats itself, it just comes in a different outfit.
00:29:54
Speaker 4: So we've been through this before.
00:29:56
Speaker 2: You know, we can go back to you know, just in the nineteen sixties here in East lay in some schools in Texas, there were walkouts happening from students who were demanding just quality education, which also included Spanish language teachers or just teachers that look like them. And it took the efforts of these young students for many of these school districts to adopt new ways of, you know, of supplying this type of education to our students. So I think as a Latina who has seen the challenges my parents have faced, the challenges that I have faced, and what we're actually currently facing right now with these you know, just horrific deportations happening all across the country, it feels like the work that we're doing is just that more important because there's so much uncertainty, so we have to become the people we needed growing up.
00:31:03
Speaker 4: I'm someone who's hopeful and regardless.
00:31:05
Speaker 2: Of what's happening in all the noise, I feel, you know, we're resilient and we always find a way to get through the challenges that we face historically. I mean, just a few days ago, I was just talking to my son. I said, look, can you like, can you even like the reason we're here? And I don't want to get all I don't want us to go that deep. And I'm like, it's over eight thousand generations that have survived wars, colonization, like plagues, everything under the sun, and yet our lineage survived at all, and we're right here.
00:31:40
Speaker 4: I am an optimist.
00:31:42
Speaker 2: I believe there's a there's this is a season that we're going through, and we're going to get through it even stronger because that's just what we do as humans.
00:31:58
Speaker 1: Since you mentioned your kids, then also makes me wonder, like, what's their relationship with Spanish and English and how is it different from yours.
00:32:06
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think they definitely are growing up differently than I did. And I acknowledge that I had a first row relationship to my culture and identity. Now as a parent, being a Racing second generation kids, I actually have to work to ensure that the culture and identity stays alive. And it's incredible that I can have a conversation with them in English and Spanish, and I'm very intentional about making sure that they eat traditional foods that you know, we're playing traditional music at home. You know, they're not going to have my same experience or not. When I tell them stories of the challenges that I went through, you know, growing up as a childhood immigrants, they think I'm telling the story of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. You know, that's how they see it, because you know, they don't they don't know. They're comfortable in their own bedrooms. I didn't have my own bedroom until I was twenty one. Yeah, so it's a blessing, right, I think, you know. And I talked to my mother about this and I and I say, you know, I feel like I'm doing it wrong, and she's like, you know, this is why I came to this country. So you can tell those stories to them and they don't have to go through what we went through.
00:33:26
Speaker 4: Now they're just stories.
00:33:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that just that floored me a little bit because I don't have kids, but my brother does, so I have a niece and nephew, and it's very much that my brother is not bilingual, even though I am. He can understand good Drati, but he he doesn't really speak it. And so the kids are still young. But I feel like a lot of those stories because I'm older and I'm the uncle, I'm like, I guess that falls on me and Grandma and grandpa. You know, like you go to Grandma's house and there's a bed for you to sleep, And when I went to my grandma's house, we all slept on the floor like that just there was it was one room. It was a one room apartment.
00:34:07
Speaker 4: So they will never know.
00:34:08
Speaker 2: They will not know.
00:34:09
Speaker 1: And we've shown them that they've gone to India on a trip, and I you know, we tried to make it a point to show them and to give them the like the tactile experiences of what things are.
00:34:19
Speaker 2: So that requires, you know, it's work, right, it's intentional having to introduce them to this.
00:34:24
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeahs to as opposed to it should be fun and it should be it should be crazy, and it should be there should be nightmare days and you know all of that, Like I want them to understand. I want them to get those experiences wherever possible. So it's I've never actually, i think, explicitly talked with anybody about that. So hearing your experience being quite similar as the mom to just me having not a backseat. But you know, I'm like a degree removed because I'm the uncle. But it makes me feel a little less crazy. So thank you for thank you for sharing that.
00:34:57
Speaker 2: No, but it's again, it's a responsibility that we have because you know, I think are this generation forgets the challenges and the sacrifices that the generation before had to make.
00:35:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, the the the insecurity that seems to drive the English only movement. I don't think I will ever fully understand.
00:35:23
Speaker 4: But it's just crazy.
00:35:25
Speaker 2: You have. In Latin America, it's practical you are required to speak a second language, and also in other countries around the world sometimes like at night on like scrolling on TikTok and I'm watching videos of schools and and in in China, Japan, and I'm just like, these kids are going to rule the world, and here and here we are fighting over whether you know, English should be the only language in this country or not. Well, you know, you have other other kids in other countries. Just it's it's crazy. So I think, you know, in twenty years from now, when we see these kids growing up and we're wondering what happened, and well, this is what happened. These other countries are prioritizing education, prioritizing language, while we are over here complaining about our neighbor.
00:36:17
Speaker 1: Our cultural priorities right now seem to be a little out of whack compared to other countries. You articulated it really well, the idea that we're fighting over this when the rest of the world is continuing to move on and compete against us and win, is like we're having that this is a distraction, you guys, like why are we why are we taking the bait on this distraction? Well, that then brings me to I think one of the one of the last questions I was gonna maybe leave on is, given all of that, what are the things that you find to be more urgent right now? And then what are you excited and hopeful about?
00:36:57
Speaker 2: What do I find most urgent right now? Ensuring that our teachers are well funded, well paid, They're so gracious, and we don't respect them enough in this country, we don't value them enough. We should definitely increase our education budget, help mothers with childcare. And one am I hopeful. I'm hopeful about everything. It's I don't allow them to take our joy away, even when we're faced with these fights. I look back at those first three months of building Little Libros. I was in the zone. I was a new mother, I had a full time job, but I was in the zone. I was like laser focus on this dream and it felt like a spiritual experience. And I like to see that. I like to feel that like that every day, that, regardless of the noise, our time here is really short and we only we There's only so much we can do in that time that we're given. And there's this wonderful quote by Emiliano Sabata, a Mexican revolutionary. He says it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees, and I think that's the way we should all live life.
00:38:27
Speaker 1: Totally agree, and a beautiful quote to end on. Patti Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining.
00:38:33
Speaker 4: Us, Thank you for having me.
00:38:39
Speaker 1: That was my incredible guest. Patti Rodriguez, the previous senior producer of On Air with Ryan Seacrest and the co founder of the bilingual children's publishing company Lil Libros. Here we Go again as a production of iHeart Podcasts and Snapoo Media in association with New Metric Media. Our executive producers are me Kal Penn, Ed Helms, Mike Falbo, Alyssa Martino, Andy Kim, Pat Kelly, Chris Kelly, and Dylan Fagan. Meghan tan Is our producer and writer. Dave Shumka is our producer and editor. Our consulting producer is Romin Borsolino. Tory Smith is our associate producer. Theme music by Chris Kelly, logo by Matt Gosson, Legal review from Daniel Welsh, Caroline Johnson and Meghan Halson. Special thanks to Glenn Bassner, Isaac Dunham, Adam Horn, Lane Klein and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but especially Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman and Nikki Etour. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
