Its Patrons Speak Volumes : Future Is Uncertain for Library Branch That Nurtures Barrio Youth

ORANGE —  Two years ago, Rosio Hernandez routinely received poor or failing grades in most of her classes.

“I used to get into a lot of fights,” said Rosio, an outgoing 13-year-old with shoulder-length dark hair and an easy laugh. “I had a lot of problems.”

But then Rosio, who lives with grandparents who speak little English, discovered the Friendly Stop, a branch of the Orange Public Library in the heart of the Cypress barrio. The library was established in 1990 in an effort to reach out to the city’s ever expanding population of Latino teen-agers.

But now, Orange library officials, scrambling to find funding and embroiled in a dispute over the site, say that the innovative 2-year-old project is in danger of closing.

“I consider the fate of the Friendly Stop Library tenuous at best,” said Cindy Mediavilla, manager of the Central Library. “We don’t have any funding past mid-1993 and there is the more immediate issue of the fight between the city and the school district.”

The city located the library on land belonging to the Orange Unified School District. But no rent was paid and now the school district, facing its own financial worries, wants the city to lease the site as part of a joint-use agreement.

The school district and the city are negotiating the terms of that agreement. Yet negotiations between the two sides have been rocky and library officials say they fear having to relocate.

School district officials maintain that they value the Friendly Stop.

“It was just a giant mix-up,” said Franck Remkiewiczhe, school district’s planning director. “We’ve steadily contended that they aren’t going anywhere. I’m not sure that someone, somewhere didn’t push a panic button and get everyone all riled up.”

Still, the Friendly Stop also faces financial pressures. It has existed on the thin ice of federal and state grants and private largess since the day it opened with a $100,000 federal grant which ended this summer.

Library officials were able to replace it with another one-year $30,000 grant in order to continue offering such non-traditional library services as advice about jobs, sex, health and drugs as well as help with homework and English.

But the grant ends on June 30, 1993, and the project’s future is uncertain unless another source of funding can be found. As it is, the Friendly Stop began closing on Fridays two months ago as a result of city budget cuts.

“It’s the only positive activity for Latino teens in West-Central Orange,” said Nora Jacob, a member of the Friendly Stop Coalition, a group of Orange residents who support the library. “These people are part of America and if we are ever going to empower them and give them the tools to do it we have to do it now, and this library is a way to do it.”

Almost every day after her eighth-grade classes end, Rosio Hernandez comes to the facility at 615-A N. Lemon St., which contains about 1,000 books in both English and Spanish.

“When I came here my grades started getting better and better and now I have an A in math,” Rosio said. “When I come in here I just sit. I write letters to my friends; I draw; I read the newspapers. Outside, my friends hear rumors and fights start. So, I just come into the library. I come in around 3 (p.m.) and I don’t leave till it closes at 6.”

“It’s not like a typical library,” said Anthony Garcia, the bilingual librarian who supervises the facility. “I’ve been to some of their homes and eaten dinner with them. A person came in today with an ad they received in the mail they couldn’t understand.”

In fact, the Friendly Stop often doubles as a community center. The teen-agers go from table to table conducting occasionally raucous conversations. Adults come to borrow videos. At one table, three preschoolers sit quietly drawing in coloring books.

“At the other libraries, they don’t help you,” said Guillermo Garcia, 10, another Friendly Stop regular. “I started working on my book report on Mexico . . . and Anthony is helping me with stuff I don’t know how to spell.”

Civic leaders say it would be a tragedy if the branch was forced to close.

“It has been a wonderful influence in the immediate community,” said Johnny Lopez, pastor of the Hispanic Lutheran Mission. “It gives them hope.”

And every day, new students wander in to the library, where they know they will find someone who speaks Spanish.

Miguel Gonzalez, 16, only discovered the Friendly Stop two weeks ago.

“I come every time it’s possible,” he said. “I’m not so good at speaking English and they help me here.”