Milpitas has renamed its library in honor of a six-term mayor and one-term city councilmember who led the charge to get it built.
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A sign for the Milpitas Jose Esteves Library was unveiled at a July 19 ceremony. Esteves, 78, was elected to the city council in 1998 and served as mayor from 2002-2008 then again from 2010-2016.
Current Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano said Esteves deserves the recognition because he initiated the idea for a new library. Esteves related how he saw students “shoulder to shoulder” in the small space of the old library in the old city hall building at 455 E. Calaveras Blvd.
“I value education and knowledge. A library is the first thing we should give our children,” said Esteves, his voice sometimes breaking. “When I see the sign, it honors parents and teachers, especially immigrants looking for a better life and future.”
Introducing her father, Irene Esteves-Pham said that as a boy, he had contented himself with makeshift toys and made do with scarce resources in his native Philippines.
Esteves proposed Measures H and I to fund the library project, secured money when there was still a redevelopment agency, then started planning infrastructure. With his engineering background, he got involved with most of the details of building the library.
The 60,000-square-foot Milpitas Library opened in 2009 as the largest library in Santa Clara County. Since then, more than 1.5 million visitors have checked out 2.5 million materials. The library was built around the old Milpitas Grammar School, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
The Milpitas Library is the only one in the area that boasts a parking garage because, according to Esteves, accessibility makes a library more attractive to patrons and prospective patrons.
More than 100 people attended the renaming ceremony, including Esteves’ wife Susan, son-in-law Nam Hoai Pham and grandson Dominic. Aside from family and friends, well-wishers included a large delegation of seniors from the Milpitas Chinese Evergreen Club that Esteves has supported financially, according to club member Yugang Wang.
The offices of state Sen. Aisha Wahab, Congressman Ro Khanna and Santa Clara County Supervisor Otto Lee presented Esteves with certificates of appreciation.
The Milpitas Jose Esteves library joins the list of structures renamed after distinguished Asian-Americans, notably the San Jose Mineta International Airport, renamed after the late Congressman Norman Mineta, who also served as U.S. commerce and transportation secretary; and Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School in Union City, renamed after Larry Itliong and Phillip Vera Cruz, who merged their labor union with Cesar Chavez’s to form the United Farm Workers Union in 1962.