08 Jan In El Sobrante, Belonging Began at the Library

The El Sobrante library, located at 4191 Appian Way, was not only a place for the author to read and get free meals as a child, it was also where she found community and belonging.

Commentary, Arianna Caramagno

When I was growing up, El Sobrante always seemed less like a place and more like a bridge between places. When you spend your entire life living in a place whose name roughly translates to “The Leftovers,” it’s difficult to imagine it as anything other than that.

Unlike other nearby cities with big shopping malls, tourist attractions, or direct access to the bay, El Sobrante lacks a lot of the charm that most of the Bay Area is known for. Aside from the gurdwara, a Sikh temple, in the hills, not much stood out to me as a kid, and I felt self-conscious about where I lived.

It took years for me to understand that what El Sobrante lacked, it made up for in something far more lasting: a sense of belonging.

Though I didn’t see it at the time, the space where I found belonging in El Sobrante was the library.

As an elementary school student, I spent a lot of time going to the library, partly to read and partly because of the air conditioning. Although I mostly focused on looking through the graphic novels and young adult sections during my visits, going to the library also gave me the opportunity to find joy in the El Sobrante community.

It was a safe place where I was able to read, get free meals as a student, listen to author talks, and attend community events with other people who also happened to live in El Sobrante. Being surrounded by kind people who helped cultivate such a welcoming space in my small community made me feel proud of where I lived instead of the usual embarrassment.

It was only when the library burnt down in 2018 and had to be rebuilt that I understood what I had lost.

The Richmond Library was only a short drive away, but it wasn’t the same. I had completely taken for granted what an everyday space like the library had meant for everyone in El Sobrante — beyond providing access to books and activities.

There were few other community spaces I knew in El Sobrante where people of all ages could feel a sense of belonging together. Losing the library meant losing a lot of the connections I had made with my community and waiting for it to be rebuilt felt like an eternity.

Returning to the library as an adult doesn’t fill me with the same childlike wonder, but it does still fill me with a sense of belonging. Although the interior of the library and the books are different, the space still holds the same meaning that made the original library so important to me. Being able to see both new and old generations have access to the same space and opportunities that fostered my own sense of community growing up is enlightening.

While El Sobrante may lack the same excitement and flashy infrastructure of bigger cities, it makes up for it completely in community. Despite not living in a place with much noteworthiness

Even if others may see it as leftovers, I am grateful it is where I grew up.