Raquel Cion is an unusual librarian.
When she reads to kids during story time at the St. Mark’s Day School library in Brooklyn, she puts on a performance. The strength in her voice, the life in her expressions and the details in her gestures give her away as a seasoned actress.
However, her dream of someday embracing a full-time acting career is being frustrated by the nation’s increasingly grave economic conditions. When she looks at her debts, her monthly expenses and her options, she says it is easy to get discouraged.
“Every few months I find myself having to re-evaluate my whole existence,” Cion said. “It's hard. It's a struggle."
For Cion, nearing 40, self-sufficiency has been elusive. She earned her bachelor’s degree in theater 18 years ago, but unable to earn a steady income as an experimental performance artist, she had to find other means of supporting herself. She has worked as a personal assistant, caretaker for an elderly man, office assistant, waiter, massage therapist and telemarketer. But these jobs paid very little and she found herself constantly scrambling for the next job to cover her bills.
Street vendors meet the press
I went to Lehman Brothers the week it went bankrupt and tried to rustle up a down-and-out banker for our multimedia project. What I found instead were some media savvy street vendors -- the press having descended on the area en masse earlier in the week. I approached an older woman hawking newspapers, hoping for a friendly interview. I hadn’t uttered a word when she handed me a Daily News article from the day before featuring her story and picture. It wasn’t her only clip. She begrudgingly agreed to be interviewed again -- on her terms.
Importance of being human
The first time my partner and I met our profile subject, Raquel Cion, we visited her at the school where she works as a librarian. Raquel was telling us about some acting-related activities she had managed to fit into her workday, and I said something along the lines of, “So, the acting is just a side thing, right?” I may as well have kicked her in the shin. The experience served as a strong reminder to tread carefully when you’re trying to walk in someone else’s shoes.
—Heather Grossmann
In 2005, Cion decided she needed a plan B. She put herself through two years of self-described torture to get a graduate degree in library and information science. When she graduated, she landed a job as the librarian at a private middle school in Crown Heights and, for first time in her life, she had health insurance.
“I was amazed that she went to librarian school,” said Cion’s mother, Ruth Cion. “But she was really worried about the stability of any kind of work in the theater world. I think it was an immense compromise.”
Despite the sacrifice, Cion is not out of the woods. Her job pays under $2,000 a month. She has deferred payment of her $30,000 student loan for the time being, but interest continues to accrue. Her rent is about $800, nearly half her paycheck. With $300 in utility bills, $800 in groceries and other necessities and $500 a month to pay down her credit card debt, Cion’s paycheck does not cover her monthly expenses. The remainder goes back on her credit card.
“Being in debt has become a given,” Cion said. “It’s an endless loop.”
Because of her limited resources, Cion tries to live frugally. She always makes her lunch and brings it to school with her. She bikes to and from work to save the $81 cost of a monthly Metrocard. When she goes clothes shopping, it is at thrift stores and when she splurges, it’s at Forever 21, where the average cost of a piece of clothing is under $20.
