Geographically, Linda Vista is essentially the heart of the City of San Diego, and several signs marking its boundaries highlight this distinction. Metaphorically, the diversity of the community also is representative of San Diego. Developed in the 1940s as a center of housing for military personnel and factory workers during World War II, it's now a primarily residential neighborhood, home to several elementary and secondary schools as well as the University of San Diego.
The library has as diverse a collection of materials in Asian languages as I've seen thus far, featuring books in Chinese, Vietnamese, Lao, and more. As you'd expect, this diversity is an apt reflection of the diversity of Linda Vista itself. The community has a large population of immigrants from Southeast Asia. In fact, the book The Gangster We Are All Looking For, by Le Thi Diem Thuy, which chronicles the experiences of a Vietnamese family seeking refuge in the United States during the Vietname war, is actually set in the Linda Vista. The book was selected by One Book One San Diego in 2011, a project run by SDPL that selects one novel each year for San Diegans to read, and then hosts events related to the book, including discussions and talks by the author.
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