Spanish Lessons

  Illustration by RODERICK ROXAS/Daily Bruin

By Sarika Gangar
Daily Bruin Contributor

For newly arrived immigrants, adjusting to a new culture and
language can already be frightening, but not knowing how to read or
write in their native language means an added hardship.

Some UCLA students in the Honors Collegium 128 class
“Latinos and Literacy,” however, aim at the heart of
this problem in the Pico Union area of Los Angeles County by
tutoring adults.

“When you don’t know how to read and write, it is so
hard to express your feelings.” said Cynthia Cornejo, a
teacher at El Centro Comunitario Calle 8, one of the sites where
students can tutor.

Latinos for Literacy requires field experience and combines an
academic core with volunteer work for Centro Latino de Educacion
Popular, an organization that teaches Latino adults to read and
write Spanish.

Taught by Susan Plann, a professor in the department of Spanish
and Portuguese, the course is a service learning program that looks
to give students both a theoretical and practical understanding of
literacy, according to the class description.

  Photo courtesy of Jose D. Hernandez Andrea
Duncan (center) tutors Marta Mejia (left)
and Fabiola Perez in English at the Centro
Communitario Calle 8 in downtown Los Angeles through the Honors
Collegium 128 class, titled "Latinos and Literacy."

“In the Spanish department, many of our students are
non-Latinos,” Plann said. “It gives them the chance to
be involved with the people whose language and cultures they are
studying in our classes.”

Throughout the quarter, students travel to the center and tutor
four hours a week. In addition, they also meet to discuss readings
regarding literacy on a weekly basis.

Hardships in their native countries coupled with newfound
hardships in the United States have prevented many adults in the
Latino immigrant community from receiving any form of formal
education, according to Caitlin Patler, a second-year undeclared
student in the class.

The majority of the pupils are from Mexico and Central America,
and range in age from the late teens to early-70s, Plann said.

Many share a similar background of being non-English speaking
immigrants struggling at or below the poverty line.

The tutors’ efforts have provided a second chance for many
adults who were denied educations in their native countries.

Many male tutees recalled trading in their educations for jobs,
while many of the women said pressure to remain at home, along with
the commonly held belief that girls did not need an education,
prevented them from attending school.

“Not being able to read is like being blind, said tutee
Alejandra Flores through a translator. “These programs open
our eyes.”

Flores, along with 14 other tutees, receive tutoring four times
a week at the downtown Los Angeles center.

“It’s really enriching to know these people come to
the center Monday through Thursday after working throughout the
whole week,” said Natalie Parikh, a fourth-year anthropology
student taking the class. “They’re still willing to
come in and work in order to better their chances in life and their
children’s lives.”

The tutees often work long hours as laborers and many attend
evening tutoring sessions held at a second center, Centro
Comunitario Villa Esperanza located near downtown L.A.

Yet, they work hard at learning to read Spanish to gain
independence in their lives, to benefit their children, and because
it is highly beneficial in the mainly Latino communities in the
Pico area, Plann said.

According to CLEP literature, there is an estimated 800,000
Latino immigrants in Los Angeles County who don’t know how to
read Spanish.

Without these literacy skills, some immigrants face difficulty
in such areas as writing letters to relatives back home, helping
their children with schoolwork, advancing in jobs, reading books,
reading public notices and navigating their way around the
city.

After the tutees master reading Spanish, they can then move on
to learning English by taking English as a Second Language
courses.

For many of the tutors, working with these Latino adults offered
insight into the tutees’ own personal worlds.

“It’s quite impactful to be face to face with
someone your age who doesn’t know how to hold a pencil, or to
meet someone who is 70 and has never written a letter or read the
newspaper,” Plann said.

Patler added that some of the tutees have no telephones in their
homes.

Latinos and Literacy is now running in its sixth year and is
offered once every two years.

Plann said she hopes to continue reaching out to the Latino
community while providing students with an invaluable learning
experience.

Next quarter, four of the current tutors are planning to pursue
independent research projects on the tutees through work in a 199
course.

“Westwood is kind of like a little bubble,” Patler
said. “We need to realize that right at our fingertips there
is an entire community that could really benefit from us as
teachers.”