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My reading journey began quite rocky for me during my first year or two of school. At home, I spoke a significant amount of Spanish due to my parents wanting me to retain the language prior to entering school. Because of this, when I first entered school reading was quite difficult for me. Luckily, my parents noticed this early on and I was able to work on my literacy skills via help from my teachers and other on-campus resources.

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Once I began to overcome the language barrier, I grew fond of reading and my parents actively encouraged me to read by taking me on trips to the public library down the street from our home. Two people who really encouraged me to read early in my childhood were my second-grade teacher, Ms. Daniel, and my third/fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Conroy. Ms. Daniel really motivated me to read through the class read-alouds she would do with our class. I specifically remember her reading a series known as the Black Lagoon Adventures Series which I thoroughly enjoyed not only because I could read them as well but because the visuals really tied the stories together. As I made my way through elementary school, Ms. Conroy facilitated my interest in fiction by lending me books from our classroom library such as Junie B. Jones, The Magic Treehouse, The Rainbow Magic series, and Captain Underpants.

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As I entered middle school, I continued my interest in series such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Hunger Game series, and Dork Diaries. Yet, as I approached high school I began exploring more novels such as Thirteen Reasons Why, Smile, and Twisted.

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Throughout high school, I did not read for leisure as frequently due to  extracurriculars, but I still enjoyed reading for school-- especially my 10th grade English class. One of the books I enjoyed reading the most in this class was House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. This was one of the first times I read a text by a Latina woman and it felt really special to me to see this representation in my class. Another book that really stuck with me was Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi because it combined my interest in learning with my love for history and social sciences, as well as graphic novels. Interestingly enough, I didn’t read this in my English class but read it independently after a recommendation from my high school French teacher.

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During my time as a young adult, I have unfortunately not made as much time for leisurely reading as I wish but I still try to read here and there. I have found myself gravitating more towards nonfiction texts-- particularly those that I identify with (i.e. Latin American history accounts + autobiographical pieces) which I really enjoy reading and find very empowering as they have allowed me to feel connected to others in my community and to continue to learn about histories and topics I’m passionate about. I hope to make more time for this and dive back into the world of fiction as it’s been a while since I’ve continued to explore it. As of now, I’m looking to reread The Alchemist by Paolo Cohelo (a book I read in 9th grade).