Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed launched Los Amigos Books as an online bookstore in 2021. What began as just an online catalog has evolved into a shop on Western Avenue in Chicago. She looks to promote language learning through her bookstore, with shelves stocked up with Spanish and bilingual books for children and young adults, promising accurate and respectful representations of the cultures being portrayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you know yourself and your culture and where you come from, you\u2019re more sound of mind and comfortable with yourself and your own identity,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed said. \u201cYou\u2019re also able to speak to your grandparents and the older generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Raised in Chicago, Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed majored in Spanish at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. When she started taking night classes to be a librarian, she took a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, for an international book fair, where she learned about international publishers. This gave her the idea for Los Amigos Books. All this knowledge helps her select the books to display online and in the store. She also sells to libraries and dual language schools, looking for educational materials that American publishers don\u2019t offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel great responsibility to make sure that what we carry and sell to those clients are going to be used as educational tools and language models for the kids who are reading books, and to support their bilingual programming,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosie Camargo is a customer and collaborator of Los Amigos Books. She is the cultural literacy specialist at South Holland Public Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I started ordering from her, my library admin was like, \u2018Well, you can order these from Baker and Taylor,\u2019\u201d Camargo said. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018No, I can\u2019t. These publishers don\u2019t sell to those big distributors, so in order to get those in my library, I have to order through her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Camargo collaborates with Los Amigos Books to lead monthly Spanish story times, which include music and arts and crafts. In November, families decorated Christmas trees and made star-shaped frames to take home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a 2023 Pew Research Center report on the importance of Spanish usage among future U.S. Latino generations, over 65% of more than 3,000 Latinos surveyed agreed it is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, wants her son, Noah, to stay connected with the language and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy son was one of my biggest motivations,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed said. \u201cHim and children of his age, and having them have a space where you walk in and they see their language all over the shelves, and they see characters that look like them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Los Amigos Books also holds book signings with Latino authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In October, they welcomed Mexican author Isis Macedo Su\u00e1rez, who lives in Chicago, to present her recently launched bilingual book \u201cStrelin y su viaje al planeta azul\u201d (Strelin and Her Journey to the Blue Planet).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Su\u00e1rez says Los Amigos Books \u201cis a unique environment. It gives that familiarity when you enter, as if you were in a living room, without the rigidity of big bookstores,\u201d she said in Spanish. \u201cWith Los Amigos Books, you really feel that affection and love for literature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Customers like Claudia Alem\u00e1n, a babysitter who shopped at the bookstore a Wednesday in November, said bookstores like this one help Hispanic children not lose interest in their cultures. During a walk at Holstein Park, only a few minutes east of the bookstore, she decided to pay a visit. While the little girls she cares for only read English, the native Mexican believes she can teach them about her language and culture through books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey don\u2019t understand, but if we teach them a little, they grow up with curiosity,\u201d Alem\u00e1n said in Spanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed says they get a mix of families who register for storytime. The diversity of her customers shows Los Amigos Books\u2019 success in reaching people who also value multiculturalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samuel Rodr\u00edguez, Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed\u2019s husband, says these crowds are encouraging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt kind of shows us that we are doing something right, and there are other people out there that want to raise their kids bilingual, even if they are not from Latino cultures,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the story time in November ended, families finished decorating their Christmas frames and even purchased books on their way out, carrying paper bags with the Los Amigos Books logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed hopes Los Amigos Books continues to grow, as she is open to expanding to other locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou might see big chain stores post about some Spanish language books by Latino authors only in Hispanic Heritage Month, but that\u2019s what we do year-round all the time,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez-Roman\u00ed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/illn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_9461.jpg\")
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<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nShelves and tables stocked with picture books, fiction novels and biographies. (Photos by Mariana Bermudez.)<\/em>
<\/h6>\n\n\n\nSuccess through their approach<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Looking ahead<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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