What I Learned From My Mother

Respect Others

Carla Hayden (far right) is sworn in as the Librarian of Congress on Sept. 14, 2006. From left: Chief Justice John Roberts, House Speaker Paul Ryan, (R-Wis.) and Colleen Hayden.

Shawn Miller / Library of Congress

My mother, Colleen Hayden, is a classically trained musician who also had a successful career as a social worker. She taught me the importance of patience and discipline and focusing on fairness and balance when I engage with people. With that as my model, I developed a high level of empathy and understanding of the struggles others may be experiencing. My mother always told me to treat everyone with respect, no matter their age, gender, social economic status or political beliefs. As a lifelong librarian, I was able to apply these lessons when I interacted with library users, whether it was in a storefront library in Chicago or the neighborhood branches in Baltimore, to now, at the Library of Congress.

— Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress

Fairy Tales and Family Lore

[I learned] pretty much everything, because Margaret Bragg was my mother and my father. When we left my dad, I was 6 years old and I had probably only known him a grand total of six months of my life. He was mostly absent. She was everything.

She told me the stories that I went to sleep by; she would invent fairy tales — not anything terrifying — just foxes and possums and bears. And preachers. She would retell old, old stories from generations that had gone past, so if I heard a story, it was her or my grandma.

She was everything. She fed me; she clothed me. Momma worked as a maid for other people so that I had school clothes. She had to be everything.

It's really easy to talk about Mom. I never have to say the same thing twice because she continues to tell stories from 1959 and 1962 and 1968, and she continues to refresh her own narrative, as we say in the business.

She just had a birthday and I made the mistake of saying, “Happy 83rd birthday.” She's 82. She said, “For God's sake, don't make it any worse than it already is.”

— Rick Bragg, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and author of The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table

Rosa Maria Marcano Alverio with her daughter, actress Rita Moreno.

courtesy Rita Moreno

Unconditional Love

My mom. My beloved little Puerto Rican mami, Rosa Maria Marcano Alverio.

She showed me, without even knowing it, examples of how to live.

Her brave way to take on life's harsh lessons without becoming bitter.

Her sense of humor and the understanding that nothing comes for free…that earning life's rewards is what makes them sweeter.

But most of all, most of all, her unconditional love for me.

— Rita Moreno, actress who has earned Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards