A 'living library' keeps Cahuilla culture alive

With a population of just over 4,000, the Torres Martinez Reservation, in Thermal, California, is home to the Cahuilla, the indigenous people of the Coachella Valley. The Education Library Center is an enrichment program for youth on the reservation, offering tutoring, structured curriculum, parent seminars, a computer lab and a collection of books that includes native studies and archives. "The growing emphasis on higher education is at the forefront of all tribal communities across the nation. Higher education is now a very real and viable tool that our young people must access so that they can come back and learn how to successfully empower their nation." Luisa Armijo, the education and library director at the reservation, spoke to Coachella Unincorporated.