One trip to the library was all it took to get Omar and Octavio Viramontes hooked on learning.
The twin brothers immigrated to the United States from Mexico when they were 10 years old. Once the family settled in central California, they all worked together, picking grapes and selling produce door to door. Omar told CBS News that the first year was "tough," but "we started to realize that we were doing this for a specific reason, and it was to help our family, to help each other."
Their mother introduced them to the library, and they instantly became enamored. "Every single time I entered that library, I was entering a different world by reading a different book," Octavio said. "It gave me the imagination to be somewhere else." The brothers excelled in high school, and were co-valedictorians at graduation. Both received scholarships to attend college — Omar went to the University of California San Diego, Octavio to Harvard — and each decided, separately, that he wanted to attend medical school.
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Octavio remained at Harvard, while Omar went to the University of California Los Angeles, and they recently graduated, just one day apart. Both are grateful to their parents for making sacrifices to improve their lives, and Omar said he plans on paying that forward. "Every day I wake up and I think, 'What can I do today to make myself better, my family better, and my community?'" he said. Catherine Garcia
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