2008 IVC Commencement Speaker Rueben Martínez
Originally from the small mining town of Miami, Arizona, where his parents worked as copper miners, Rueben Martínez moved to Southern California at the age of 17. Now celebrating his 45th year as a barber and 29th year as a business owner, he is a savvy entrepreneur and advocate who understands the energy and power of small businesses and the critical value of literature and reading.
Barbershops are known for sparking new ideas, and in 1993 Martínez had an idea that grew from a small collection of books in his barbershop and evolved over the course of a decade into nationally recognized bookstores. Today, the Líbrería Martínez Books and Art Gallery (with two locations in Santa Ana and one in Lynwood) and the Libros Para Niños, a children’s bookstore, are lively hubs for cultural events and community activities, showcasing Spanish-language authors and artists.
A speaker much in demand, Martínez has inspired businesspeople, faculty, and students locally, nationally, and internationally—from the Orange County Business Council, to Columbia University, to the Sorbonne in Paris. He has promoted reading throughout the Southern California area, speaking at schools and conferences and, for the last eight years, at the Book Expo America. He partnered with actor Edward James Olmos to establish the Latino Book and Family Festival. In 2004 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship—often called a “genius grant”—for “fusing the roles of marketplace and community center to inspire appreciation of literature and preserve Latino literary heritage.”
Though he has received numerous titles and awards over the years, Martinez holds his title as “father, grandfather and great-grandfather” most important of all. A firm believer that one person can make a difference in people’s lives, Martinez spends hours talking to customers at the bookstores, catching up with his barbershop patrons, engaging citizens in political discourse, and motivating students throughout the country and world.