In Honor of Rose Zertuche-Treviño

Children of all ethnic groups lost a valuable advocate when Houston librarian Rose Zertuche-Treviño died on April 30. She was 58. She was a trailblazer known for devoting her career to improving the lives of children by fostering a love of books.


Treviño, who passed away coincidentally on El día de los niños/El día de los libros, was the youth services coordinator for the Houston Library System, which serves one of the biggest Spanish-speaking populations in the country. In October 2009, she retired and moved back to her hometown, San Antonio.

Her story is a common one for her generation. She was the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and grew up in a poor family. Her father worked in a cotton field as a child. Her mother worked four jobs. Her first language was Spanish and learned to speak English when she entered kindergarten. That year, she also stepped foot in a library for the first time with her mother and decided what she wanted to be when she grew up.

The oldest of five children, she helped raise her three sisters and brother. She was the first person in her family to attend college and graduate school, earning a master’s degree in library science in 1975 from Our Lady of the Lake University, a local Catholic university.

She became the first Hispanic manager of a library in San Antonio, and later became the children’s services coordinator at the Central Library.

She was the first Hispanic to serve as chair of the 2009 Newbery Award Committee and also served as chair of the Pura Belpré Award Committee. And she was on the El día de los niños/El día de los libros National Advisory Committee, a program founded by author and poet, Pat Mora, to help libraries reach out to Latino families.

She wrote Read Me a Rhyme in Spanish and English (2009), a collection of Latino rhymes, songs, and programming ideas for librarians who work with babies and school-age children. And she edited The Pura Belpré Awards: Celebrating Latino Authors and Illustrators (2006, both ALA Editions). She was an active member of the ALA, the TLA, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), the Public Library Association (PLA), and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking.

But she would be the first to say she was most proud of reading to her son and daughter from early on. Her kids spent many a childhood day in the library, attending story time and puppet shows. She would even take them along to library conferences.

To Rose, we say: Gracias for your wonderful advocacy for nuestros niños. We will remember you.