Susana Hinojosa's Obituary
Susana Hinojosa, longtime Oakland resident, passed away on Wednesday June 21, 2023, at the age of 74. She was born on January 24, 1949, in the Hinojosa family home on 113 Grant Street in the border town of Calexico, California. The daughter of David Hinojosa, a businessman, and Esther Figueroa Hinojosa, a homemaker, Susana was the eldest child of five. For many years, the five children’s names–Susana, Carlos, Titi (Ricardo), Tinki (Alfonso), and Bebe (Evelina)–were etched into the sidewalk outside the family home. Three palm trees planted by Esther in the 1950s in memory of her children still stand outside that house.
From the beginning, Susana, or “Chuchi” as she was called by her family, was an excellent student and role model to her younger siblings. In high school, Susana worked at the old JCPenny’s on 2nd Street in downtown Calexico and, like many Mexican Americans of her generation, in the evenings she often went cruising with friends along Avenida Reforma across the border in Mexicali. Later, Susana would become the first in her family to go to college, inspiring her siblings to do the same. As an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara, Susana majored in Spanish and worked part time in the university library as a clerk to pay her tuition.
In 1971, Susana began studying for her Master of Library Science degree at UC Berkeley. During her graduate studies, she worked as an assistant in general reference services. Upon the completion of her degree, Susana was recruited by UC Berkeley, where she worked in the university’s Moffitt Undergraduate Library and Reference Department before moving to Government Documents. Susana retired in 2009 after working at Cal for 38 years.
During her long career, Susana was a mother, library activist, organizational leader, mentor, and university instructor. In 1980, she and her husband, Chris Caul, welcomed their first child, Joel, into the world. In 1982, their second child, Rafael, followed. Her children always had a sense of their mother’s professional impact on academia and the field of library sciences.
From 2001-2002, Susana served as President of REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. She was also actively involved in the American Library Association (ALA), serving on the Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee in the Association of College and Research Libraries Division of ALA. A member of the California Library Association (CLA), Susana also served on CLA’s Minority Concerns Committee. She was also a longtime member of the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS). In addition to her work in the library, Susana served as president of union AFT Local 1795, Berkeley Librarians from 1986-1992 and was an active member of the Librarians Association of the University of California. She was a strong supporter of unions focused on library workers’ rights and equity in libraries. She was also a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Library and Information Sciences and taught numerous classes, including "Navigating Cal from a Chicano/Latino Perspective" for incoming Latino students. Susana inspired generations of academics, including her niece Alana de Hinojosa, who holds a PhD in Chicana/o Studies from UCLA, as well as librarians in her multicultural studies and outreach librarian classes. In 2010, Susana received the Arnulfo D. Trejo Librarian of the Year Award from REFORMA. In 2020, she was recognized by the “150 Years of Women at Berkeley Project,” which highlights untold stories of women leaders at UC Berkeley.
Susana was known by her colleagues for describing herself as a proud Chicana from the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. She was strong willed, firm in her convictions, and always fearless in standing up for others in the face of injustice. She was also an avid lover of gardening, mystery novels, and the New York Times. In her retirement, she was most happy at home reading her books and watching cooking shows with her beloved cat, Mia, by her side.
Susana is survived by her husband, Chris Caul, her two children, Joel and Rafael Hinojosa-Caul, her siblings, Ricardo, Alfonso, and Evelina Hinojosa, her daughters-in-law, Rina Uechi and Carol Hinojosa-Caul, her three grandchildren (Alyssa, Leah, and Cora), and her nieces and nephews (Alana de Hinojosa, Quinn Bunstock, Season, Everett, Destiny, and Lyric Hinojosa).
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