Character Analysis
Carlos Rivera sticks out from the Elder Cabal in a few ways: he's not so elder; he's actually a librarian who works for the school; and he sometimes slips into speaking Mandarin. Because he's younger than about 80% of the other characters in the book, he doesn't face the same "future hard" problems. He's not stuck to his laptop like Tommie or trying to regain some former glory like Winston. Carlos is relatively okay with the future.
In fact, his problem with the Huertas Librareome Project isn't the digitization, it's the shredding of all the books (15.151). As he points out to Dean Blount, digitizing the library just means that the library gets easier to use and more people use it. Which is a good thing if you're a librarian.
The fact that Carlos is the most positive person about future technology is ironic since he's also the guy most damaged by future technology. In order to make up "the language gap" during the Sino-American Conflict, Carlos was one of the soldiers who got just-in-time-training in Mandarin (15.196). Which works perfectly except sometimes he has little seizures and can't stop himself from speaking Mandarin. That's the dark-side of the future: not all these medical miracles will work out the way you planned.
But at the end, the last time we see him, Carlos is happy and healthy. He has his library and his digital representation; and he's been cured of his JITT seizures. And he's the last character we see besides Robert, which helps to give the epilogue an upbeat ending.