We were lucky to catch up with Nury Castillo Crawford recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nury, thanks for joining us today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

As our local community, along with our entire nation sees a growth in diversity and the Latino population growing at a fast rate for the last 10 years, our educational systems must find effective strategies to support our multilingual geniuses in the making. There is current research that dictates how a bilingual brains reflect many positive attributes, including higher critical thinking skills, empathy towards others, reading, school engagement and performing better in attention tests. Yet time and time again, we hear Latino parents and students share stories of being ridiculed and marginalized due to speaking Spanish in school or having an accent– unfortunately not just by peers. As we focus on social emotional support systems for all students, we must acknowledge that part of a child’s self esteem is a key variable in a healthy emotional being. All children must feel safe and that they belong in order to find success in a learning environment.
We must integrate cultural responsive pedagogy, actual geographic and historical data about our country, increase the representation in school/district staff, and provide resources in multiple languages so that all children feel seen, heard and respected.
Aside from the continual work to ensure students have a positive self esteem, I would add that we must increase the opportunities for a successful transition into the work force or higher education post a K-12 graduation, from career technical education to entrepreneurship to a college journey. No choice should be noted as less than. It takes all types of jobs and careers to have a productive community, students must know that what they choose is also an important role in our community.

Nury, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am originally from Peru, a country in South America. I emigrated to the USA when I was about 10 1/2 years old. I dreamt of being a teacher since I was quite young. I made that happen and grew in the profession. Currently I am an executive director for a school district. I am proud of several initiatives I have led and been a part of, including launching a mentoring program for Latino youth in 2019, with this work I was able to share the work on national platforms and local media too. I am a national keynote speaker focusing on equity in education, empowerment of bilingualism, parent engagement, Latino community strengths, biliteracy in books, and representation in education and resources in education. I am proud to be an award winning published author of bilingual books, and books in parent engagement. Some of the most notable titles are “3,585 MILES TO BE AN AMERICAN GIRL”, “Sofia & Vivi: Big Sister”, “Marisol”, and “Plant the Seeds Well…Expect Wonders.
In order to support other underrepresented authors, I launched 1010 PUBLISHING, a small press that focuses solely on the release of books in a bilingual format. Many of the books are English/Spanish, but we also have other languages such as Twi, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, and French. We launch in 2018 and have 23 titles published to date. In 2022 we released our first novel by a Cuban-American author, “The Guava Tree”.
I am also proud of our non-profit, THE little BOOK SPOT located in Lilburn, GA. Through this nonprofit, we have a bookstore, we host free monthly literacy events for children, high school resource sessions such as scholarships, what to do in specific grades to be successful, etc., and English classes for adults.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We keep in touch with our 1010 Publishing clients and THE little BOOK SPOT by providing consistent and continual social media presence. We have free events through the bookstore (non-profit) and host an annual book fair in which 1010 Publishing is also a part of . Through 1010 Publishing we also participate in other events and book festivals.

As a published author, I offer free author visits to local libraries and non-profits that support education. I also do virtual read alouds and support libraries with their bilingual story time.

As a leader in education, I am a keynote speaker, a presenter, and a guest on local and national media.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Because I am an immigrant, being resilient is somewhat embedded into my DNA. I have learned to be last and the underdog and still win / thrive not only in my professional life but also personally. I have learned the true meaning of falling down and getting back, having lived and or witnessed my immediate family emigrating to this country with nothing, no language acquisition, and a deficit in cultural knowledge…most of all the cultural knowledge needed in order to succeed in the American education system. So when I wanted to have my book published about a little brown girl, with black hair and make it bilingual…the traditional publishers I connected with didn’t quite believe in it’s potential nor success. Therefore, I decided to launch my own small press, this propelled me to support other novice writers. My dream was to then open a bookstore that focused on bilingual books, after much research I learned that over 90% of bookstores failed within the first 3 years. I applied for it to be part of a nonprofit, in which I could support the community’s literacy rate and simultaneously provide access to bilingual books.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.1010Publishing.com https://thelittlebookspot.godaddysites.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurycastillocrawford/ https://www.instagram.com/thelittlebookspot/ https://www.instagram.com/1010publishing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011122096460 https://www.facebook.com/1010Publishing https://www.facebook.com/thelittlebookspot
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nury-castillo-crawford-5420171/