E-mail a friendRueben Martinez
airdate October 14, 2004
He made more money cutting hair, but Rueben Martinez' joy was promoting reading. As a result, he's a 2004 MacArthur Fellow. Martinez grew up in a town without a public library, but his teachers inspired a love of reading. As a Santa Ana, CA barbershop owner, he made books available to his customers. He eventually turned one of his shops into what has become one of the country's largest commercial sellers of Spanish-language books. Martinez regularly tours schools urging parents to read to their children.
Rueben Martinez
Tavis: Rueben Martinez is the 2004 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship Prize for his efforts to promote literacy and reading in his hometown of Santa Ana, California. The former barber began by lending books to his customers and went on to turn one of his barbershops into a neighborhood oasis for literature. In doing so, he's had an enormous impact on young people in his community. And I'm delighted to welcome to this program Rueben Martinez. Mr. Martinez, nice to meet you.
Rueben Martinez: Tavis, I'm delighted to be here with you. This is big time.
Tavis: Well, you are big time now. First of all, congratulations on the MacArthur award.
Martinez: Whoo. Can you believe that?
Tavis: That's huge. The--the vernacular is the MacArthur Genius Grant. So you're--you're a genius, man.
Martinez: Well, I don't know about that, Tavis. I think you are.
Tavis: Oh, that's awfully kind. Tell me where you were when you heard that you had been awarded this $500,000 genius grant.
Martinez: It was a total surprise to me. I didn't know anything about it. It had been in the makings for a year and a half, and when I received this call from the gentlemen from the MacArthur Foundation, I thought it was just one of those, you know, crank calls, and I was listening and listening, but--almost thought of hanging up, Tavis. I'm glad I didn't because he did say, 'Mr. Martinez, don't even think of hanging up on me.'
Tavis: Ha ha ha!
Martinez: 'This is the real deal,' he said, So...'Congratulations. Tomorrow, you will be receiving a package by FedEx in the mail. So congratulations. You are a recipient.' And I still didn't believe it.
Tavis: So you got the package. Did you believe it then?
Martinez: Well, I was reading it so fast that I couldn't make out the words. Yes, I do know how to read, but I could not make out the words. I was totally excited. But the night before, I woke up about 10 times saying, 'Is it true? No, it isn't. No, it can't be true.' That kind of stuff. All night long. But in the morning, I woke up, went to work, there it was waiting for me, and, uh, I've been floating since then, and, uh--I had a very interesting call the other day from this lady. She said, 'I feel like I won the award, and you deserve that.' People have been so nice. So this award belongs to everybody, for everybody that has been supporting us through the years.
Tavis: You mentioned a moment ago that it wasn't that you couldn't read, but it's that you had a hard time accepting and believing what you were reading. To that point, your name, as you well know, is Rueben Martinez. I don't want my Hispanic friends to call me and tell me that I don't know how to spell. It is spelled correctly R-u-e-b-e-n. But there's an interesting story behind why it's R-u-e as opposed to the typical way of R-e-u. Tell me the story.
Martinez: Well, in Mexico, it's R-u-b-e-n. My mom just misspelled it in my birth certificate, and in our household, when Mom was wrong, she was right.
Tavis: Ha ha ha!
Martinez: So what happened is that every time I sign a check, I say, 'Hi, Mom.'
Tavis: Yeah.
Martinez: I remember her every day. She left us a few years ago. She never had an idea that this was what's going to happen to one of her sons. So, uh, you know, it stays like that, and people try to correct it, say, 'You've misspelled it.' Well, that's the way it is.
Tavis: And I have the exact problem. My name is Tavis, and people want to make me Travis all the time. So I have the reverse problem. But anyway, that's another issue. Um, tell me the story of how you came to be such a lover of books, such a lover of literature, and then tell me how that passion found its way into your barbershop.
Martinez: You know, Tavis, I come from a small little mining community, Miami, Arizona. We never had--
Tavis: I didn't even know there was a place called Miami, Arizona.
Martinez: Miami, Arizona. It's about 80 miles east of Phoenix. My mom and my dad were copper miners, and they worked very, very hard. They worked the shifts from day to swing to graveyard, and we very seldom saw both of them together. But we never had any books. We never had a bookstore in our city. We never even had a public library. So Mondays to me, Tavis, was one of the best days because I would go to school. And I had 2 teachers that always had books for me. And I would get those books, tuck ‘em in like this and don't even say 'Thank you.' I would take off to the closest bathroom and I would just read, read, and read. And I got hooked up on reading. By the time I finished the eighth grade, I already read about a hundred books. High school, 500. Uh, so, to this day I lost count--it's close to 10,000. Ha ha!
Tavis: That's a lot of books.
Martinez: I fall asleep reading. I love it. But it started with my teachers. So this is why I adore teachers, because they are the providers of education and we the students are the collectors of education. They are those trees of wisdom. So I praise them, I work with them, and because of them that's probably the reason our bookstores, the doors are open.
Tavis: All right, so tell me how your love of literacy found its way into the barbershop now?
Martinez: Oh, I've always had books in the barbershop. I had good literature, good magazines, and I had the newspapers for my customers to read while they were waiting for their haircuts. But it just happened that they liked the literature that I had, and I had to be buying the same books over and over again because I would loan them and they never returned them back. My friends were worse. My brothers and sisters, family members--'Oh, he's my brother, that's OK.' They never returned books. 90% of people don't, so I kept buying the same books over and over again. I was going to Tijuana, I tell you, to buy these books.
And finally in 1993, 11 years ago, that's when the seed was watered a little bit and we decided to just open up a bookstore, knowing nothing about the book business. And my friends would say, 'You're crazy. You can't even handle what you have right now. You don't even return phone calls. You're too busy. You're gonna lose your money.' What money? I wasn't investing anything. It was just time, and we started with 2 books, sold them the first week. Ordered 5, sold them the second week, and then from 5 went to 10 and then 25, and the big order, Tavis, I ordered 100 books. I spread them all over the barbershop. I didn't want to sell them. I felt like they belonged to me. I didn't want to let go. So I learned that you got to sell this beautiful literature, and I sold it like it was a block of gold. Here, here, here. And read it 5, 6 times and enjoy it and tell me what you liked about the book and what you didn't like about the book.
But that was 11 years ago, and now we have 3 stores. Big stores, and 2 in Santa Ana--one a children's bookstore that we're all very proud of, and one in Lynwood, California. And people always ask me, 'Why Lynwood?' And I say, 'That's why.' ‘Cause that city needs one. They've never had a bookstore in the history of that city, and that is sad. So the mayor, the council members have embraced us with open arms because now they have a bookstore, and I just can't describe that feeling, just like I can't describe that feeling when we got this call, OK? And it's--it's indescribably delicious. Ha ha ha!
Tavis: And it should be. Speaking of delicious, I am so turned on by listening to you talk. I feel your passion. Uh, and there are 2 things about you that let me know that you have spent a lot of time in a barbershop. One, your hair looks good. That's number one. So you do your own hair, I take it?
Martinez: Oh, I tried cutting it once. I ruined it!
Tavis: Well, somebody does a good job on your hair. So one, I can tell you spend time in a barbershop is because of your own hair, your own locks. But number 2, I'm just fascinated, ‘cause I do this every day, and I'm always impressed and amazed by people who sit on this set, on national TV for the first time, and you're like an old pro at this. You're relaxed, you're comfortable, you're just chatting it up. But I know that comes from being a barber and talking to folk every day at the barbershop.
Martinez: Yes. You know, I am so fortunate, Tavis. My audiences, really, are children, and I learned so much about ‘em. You learn how to relax being around children. So, Tavis, you know what? You're easy. It's the little kids, you know, that are easy, you know. And then they follow you and they follow you--'Mr. Martinez, Mr. Martinez, read to me, read to me,' that kind of stuff. And I said, 'I'll stop for kids anytime because they are our future.' And the Latino population is growing so fast. And if the parents, the first 2 teachers, start reading to them at home out loud, they prepare these children for pre-school and for kindergarten. The teachers will be ready to continue teaching them.
Tavis: How important is literacy to your point about the Hispanic community growing? Hispanics, as you well know, have now surpassed African-Americans as the number one minority in this country, and more Hispanics in this country than there are African-Americans now. How important is the notion of literacy to the success of your community?
Martinez: Well, it's--by the year 2125 we're gonna be the majority. But what good does it do, Tavis, if we're not educated and have good lives? If they start reading at a very young age they prepare themselves for the future, to compete for good paying jobs. And this is what we need to do, and books help. They help me--I've seen examples of young people when they started reading real young, and by the time they were in high school they knew what college they were going to go and what classes they would be taking and what teachers, professors, they were going to be sitting in their class so they could be taught by them. And this preparing--and it's a sad situation right now that probably 65% of all 17-year-olds, Tavis, cannot read a bus schedule. And it pains me to do that. So working together with the schools, with the teachers, with the principals, with the chancellors, the superintendent of schools, and the business community, the parents, we can all work together so we can grow together, learn together, and be proud together. Because the future is waiting for all of us, and we need to dedicate ourselves to these young people that really want to learn.
Tavis: I'm sitting here listening to you talk, and I'm thinking about your mother, God rest her soul, who had trouble spelling your name correctly. And you went on to have 3 kids who all are college graduates.
Martinez: Yes. Wow. My daughters went to USC, and my--
Tavis: Good schools at that.
Martinez: Oh, yeah.
Tavis: Expensive schools.
Martinez: Well, my daughters worked while they were going there. I worked, and I sold one of my cars just to help pay their--there was nothing more important for me than their education. My son went to Fresno State, and they're doing good now. They're raising families, buying homes. I don't know how they're doing it because I can't afford a home. But they are. They worked very hard, and they were prepared for these positions in life.
Tavis: Let me close by asking you what you intend to do with this genius grant--$500,000 spread over 5 years, I'm told. What are you gonna do with it?
Martinez: That's a good question, now that I'm 64, because I've never really had any money, and I'm disciplined now that my kids are gone, so I will be talking to advisors, a banker, a legal advisor about what is the best way to do. Because I'm at an age that I should think of maybe retiring, but I'm not. I have chosen a profession that I will work, Tavis, until the last day of my life because this is so enjoyable reading to children, reading to parents, and telling teachers, 'Read to your students because if you don't read, you know, they're not going anywhere. So...'
Tavis: There's an old adage that says that every community ought to be judged by the best they've been able to produce and not by the worst. You are among the best your community has ever produced.
Martinez: Thank you.
Tavis: Pleasure to meet you.
Martinez: Thank you.
Tavis: Congratulations.
Martinez: It's an honor.
Tavis: When I'm in Santa Ana and I need a haircut, I'm gonna come by and see you. We need to borrow a book or something. Up next on this program, Emmy-winning actor John Spencer. Stay with us.
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