Mexico donates books in U.S.

Monday, Dec. 12, 2005 | 9:22 a.m.

Fifteen women, some of whom had not gone past the fifth grade, sat in an elementary school classroom, holding a literary criticism talk of sorts.

"I would recommend this book to anyone, since it taught me a lot," said Marta Rivera, who later revealed that she is just learning to read -- in Spanish.

The books came from the Mexican government, which donates them to schools and other institutions in 45 cities nationwide where there are Mexican consulates. The series has at least a half-dozen titles on everything from Mexican history to how to talk with your children about sex.

In Las Vegas, Consul Mariano Lemus Gas said the books have gone to area schools since shortly after Mexico opened the Las Vegas Valley's first consulate in early 2002.

The consul did not have records available detailing when the donations began, how many schools have received the books, how many books have been donated or how much the books are worth.

Lemus Gas said the idea is not to make the books part of the Clark County School District's curriculum. Rather, Lemus Gas hopes parents see the books as a resource for their own education as well as to read to their children or to consult on subjects their children are studying.

In the coming weeks, he said, the program will expand to Nevada prisons, where the books will be available to hundreds of prisoners of Mexican background.

Howard Skolnik, deputy director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, said he welcomes the consulate's offer, noting that about 1,500 of 11,000 inmates in Nevada's prisons are Hispanic. The agency does not keep data on how many are of Mexican background.

"Anything that'll keep them positively occupied sitting in a cell reading books is far better than standing outside smoking cigarettes and kicking rocks," he said.

On Friday morning at Fay Herron Elementary School in North Las Vegas, the books were the subject of discussion in a special class the school holds for parents.

Fay Herron has about 1,100 students, about 90 percent of whom are Hispanic and whose parents often lack formal education. The class is meant to teach the adults English as well as get them interested in learning and more involved in their children's education.

Miriam Quintana, who teaches the class, obtained the books in October after an unknown number of them had gone mostly unused in the school's library and other places in the school for the past year or two.

Joanie Monroy, the school's assistant principal, said the consulate had made more than one donation since late 2004. Turnover in librarians as well as in other staff made it difficult to say how the books had been used since then, she said.

Even though the books are in Spanish, she sees how potent they are in motivating the mothers in her class to read, learn and communicate about what they have learned. So she encourages the women to take the books home and devotes a little less than an hour of the 10 hours of classes each week to discussing what they have read.

Alejandra Sanchez said she had read a book about sex education the week before.

"Now I can speak to my children with more confidence about the issue," she said.

Maria Elena Llama said a book of stories from the consulate had given her the opportunity to read to her children.

After the class, Juana Uribe said borrowing the books every week was "like going to school again," noting that she only finished fifth grade the first time around, on a ranch in Nayarit, Mexico.

Sitting next to her, Marta Rivera added that many of the women do not know how to read very well in Spanish. The books are helping them develop the skill of reading in addition to learning something along the way, she said.

"I hope I can read like that in English soon," she said.

Quintana thinks that day will not be too far off.

"Our goal is that they become successful in English," Quintana said. "But it's also my goal that they learn."

Monroy agreed.

"If you have parents without literacy skills coming to this country and present them with books to create a literacy environment in the home," Monroy said, "then it doesn't matter if it's in Spanish in English."

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259- 8828 or at timothy@lasvegassun.com.