Latino Event Sends Message: Books Can Change Destinies : Festival: L.A. gathering is a celebration of literacy and culture. ‘Our mission is to build a community of readers,’ official says.

The woman stepped up to the table, laid down her copy of “Americanos, Latino Life in the United States” and asked that it be dedicated to her granddaughter, Jennifer.

Author Edward James Olmos, charming in his banter, obliged. Then Olmos looked up and made a request of the smiling 17-year-old girl.

“Jennifer, I want you to go over to the Johns Hopkins booth,” he said. “I want you to get all the information they have. . . . Who knows, you might be a doctor.”

At the 1999 Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival, books, of course, are the attraction. But at its heart, this event is about the way books can alter destinies. Opening up a book can be the beginning of understanding history, of connecting with culture, of realizing potential, organizers said.

And the festival makes that point again and again, in English and in Spanish, for children and adults.

“Reading takes you there,” said Rueben Martinez, manager of the festival’s book village. “The name of the game is reading. . . . Our mission is to build a community of readers.”

Held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the festival is billed as the nation’s largest Latino book trade show. The free event continues today and is expected to attract 50,000 people.

“It’s unbelievable,” Martinez said, standing in the convention hall, marveling at the activity just 20 minutes after the doors opened.

From its beginning two years ago, the festival has grown from using 120,000 square feet of Convention Center space to 300,000.

There are booksellers offering works in English and Spanish. Magazines such as Oye, aimed at Latino men, and Latina Style are represented. Johns Hopkins University and the Los Angeles Police Department have booths. And there are vendors selling T-shirts, indigenous art and even furniture.

On the children’s stage, well-loved author Jose-Luis Orozco performed songs Saturday from his book “De Colores and Other Latin American Folk Songs for Children.” Clifford, the big red dog of the children’s book, was there. And Spider-Man showed up to sign copies of his comic books and take pictures with his fans.

“Como se llama?” Spider-Man asked a beaming Erick Dominguez, who had traveled with his mother from Hawthorne.

The event is also a celebration of culture. There were performances by folklorico dance groups, poets and the venerable Lalo Guerrero, known as the father of Chicano music.

“It’s real fun. It’s exciting,” said 10-year-old Julie Peraza, a student at Evelyn Gratts Elementary School in Pico-Union. “You learn more when you read, and one day you could be a writer and you could make a lot of money.”

Or, said schoolmate Jeanette Torres, “you can become a very good reader and you can show others how to read.”

She proudly explained how she taught her brother phonics, the building blocks to reading.

“I showed him the alphabet and I showed him how to sound it out,” she said. “I practiced first with one word. Now he’s 6, and he knows how to read.”

For students from Gratts, the festival was the first stop on a reading-themed journey. Organized by teacher Tim Adams, the day started with a trip on the Blue Line to the Convention Center and included a visit to the Central Library.

Saturday’s festival calendar also featured panel discussions. One titled “Stories About Real People: Writing Autobiographies and Biographies” included Mona Ruiz, a Santa Ana police officer who wrote a book about overcoming obstacles to achieve goals.

Another author on the panel, Carlos Jimenez, is a local teacher who has written textbooks on Latino history.

Ramiro Burr, who has published a book about tejano music, told the audience, “I believe the mosaic of American music is incomplete until it includes everybody’s contributions.”

Burr, who is from San Antonio, said the festival “is one of the most important gatherings because it illustrates to American corporations that Latinos are not only a growing population but also a race that is finding ways to better itself [by] education and literacy.”

Those in attendance reflected different schools of thought within the Latino community.

Olin Tezcatlipoca of the Mexica Movement said his group was there “basically to clarify issues of identity.” The organization rejects the use of the terms Latino and Hispanic.

“Latinos are the Latins: Southern Europeans,” the group’s literature reads. “Hispanics are the Spaniards, the people of Spain. We are not Spaniards. We are Mexicans!”

Others were there to help gather support for an effort to have the birthday of Cesar Chavez declared a holiday.

Wearing green T-shirts bearing the image of the late activist, 12-year-old Javier Cambron, his 15-year-old brother Gabriel and their friend Jesse Garcia helped at the booth.

“He devoted his life to the farm workers, and he did a lot of good things,” Javier said.

Back at the table where Olmos signed his books, Javier stepped forward, pulled off his red United Farm Workers cap and laid it on the table for Olmos to sign.

“He wrote, ‘Javier, study hard,’ ” the boy said later, adding that he planned to keep the cap and its message forever.