Las Vegas Sun

December 2, 2009

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Schools give Spanish-speaking adults primer in own language first

Image

Steve Marcus

Hector Godoy teaches a free class in Spanish literacy Tuesday as Maricela Bolanos, 53, watches. Rooted in the idea that immigrants must be literate in Spanish before they can learn English, the adult learning program uses public and private money and materials donated by the Mexican government.

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Spanish

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Hector Godoy stands in the rear of a trailer converted into a classroom, drawing lines on a board between the letter “p” and each of the five vowels.

He asks one of his 13 students, Maricela Bolaños, to sound out a series of words using those letters. Bolaños is learning to read and write, in Spanish, at 53 years old.

Her class is a “plaza comunitaria,” a program within the division of the Clark County School District that is aimed at teaching English to adults. The plaza’s unlikely home in that division stems from a discovery academics made earlier this decade: If Hispanic immigrants are to learn to read and write English, they must first be literate in their native language.

The curriculum comes from Mexico, and the U.S. Education Department and private companies cover the cost of the program. School District teachers lead the program in district classrooms.

The students are also offered a chance to complete studies from elementary to high school, also in Spanish.

Scenes like this are playing out at six other “plazas” in Nevada — in community centers, churches and nonprofit organization offices — and in at least 32 states nationwide. Some states have had the program for nearly a decade. The School District’s is in its second year.

The programs have no shortage of potential students: About 40 percent of Mexican immigrants older than 24 have less than a ninth grade education, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Obtaining an elementary-school-level foundation in Spanish proves useful in learning English because students obtain a firmer grasp of grammar and more confidence in their ability to learn a second language, says Manuel Ramirez, coordinator of the School District’s plaza.

The district supports the idea, as well as adult English-language classes, because they transform parents into better sources of help with the work their children bring home from school, says Priscilla Rocha, who oversees the adult English language services division.

The Mexican government supplies the plaza’s curriculum online and in textbooks for free. The federal government and a private company in Mexico fund the School District’s program and LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, has donated computers. Last year 75 students enrolled in Rocha’s four classrooms; now there are 115. About one in 10 are functionally illiterate.

Some enroll simultaneously in the adult English classes offered by the School District. Others wait until they acquire confidence in writing and reading Spanish before taking on English through the School District, the library or other programs.

But although all students are encouraged to use their Spanish-language studies as a springboard for learning English, not all do. About half may be drawn to the program to understand math and other subjects well enough to help their children with homework, or by the desire to be a student again, in many cases after decades of working full-time jobs, Ramirez says.

The program’s coordinator recognizes that the plaza may be controversial, both because it involves the Mexican government and because it is in Spanish. The immigration status of participants is not checked.

That’s not the issue for Ramirez. The issue for him, he says from behind his desk, is “they’re here,” meaning, the Las Vegas Valley’s Hispanic immigrants. In Southern Nevada, 28 percent of the total population is Hispanic and about 75 percent of that population is of Mexican descent, according to Census estimates.

“Isn’t it better,” Ramirez continues, “if they are studying? If they study, they become more productive members of society, even if it is in Spanish — and our goal is that they don’t stay with Spanish-language studies, but go on to English.”

Juan Salgado, who has directed one of the nation’s first plazas in Chicago since the beginning of the decade, says he has seen benefits in the program ranging from greater ease in learning English to the “X-factor” of providing a positive role model to sons and daughters.

Click to enlarge photo

Maria De Jesus Esparza Castillo, 57, works on a writing exercise during a free class Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. A school district program with private foundation money uses Mexican government-supplied materials to teach functionally illiterate parents to read and write in Spanish.

In the valley, Tuesday’s class at the trailer outside Sunset East High School included Maria de Jesus Esparza Castillo. She’s 57. The last time she sat in a classroom was in second grade, in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

“My family thought I didn’t need to study, as a woman who would just grow up to take care of the house and the children,” she explains.

As an adult in her 40s, she found herself in Las Vegas, a single mother in need of a job. She washed dishes. She worked as a prep cook. “I worked to take care of my daughter and never had time to study,” she says.

Now she walks with a limp, the outcome of a car accident last year that sidelined her from work — and brought her to the program.

Her daughter is now grown and with children. Esparza Castillo wants to understand how words and sentences are built — in Spanish. Then she wants to turn to English.

She mentions her grandsons, who speak English around her in order to “get away with things,” a situation she would like to change.

Minutes earlier, she had been copying words in neat handwriting, free of flourishes. “Now I know what a verb is, what a subject is,” she says.

Three seats down, Ermila Carrasco was answering questions at the end of a chapter on natural sciences.

She is 25 and finished junior high school in Juarez before coming to Las Vegas five years ago. She also went straight to work, as a cashier in a swap meet. Carrasco is using the plaza’s curriculum to finish high school. She also hopes the classes will help her conquer the frustration of being unable to help her 13-year-old sister with middle school homework.

“She always says, ‘You don’t know anything,’ ” Carrasco says. After obtaining her GED, Carrasco hopes to improve her English as well.

Ramirez says many of the plaza’s students have children or family members in the School District and face two barriers when it comes to helping them with homework: language and lack of familiarity with the subject matter.

Maria Ybarra Gaxiola earned her middle school diploma at 45 last spring. She also continues to study English, which she says is easier for her to understand than speak. Recently her son, Eleazar, brought an assignment home from his 10th grade math class at Las Vegas High School.

“He had to measure the area of a rectangle, but he had forgotten the formula,” Ybarra Gaxiola recalls. She had gone through similar math problems last year. “Together, we were able to figure it out.”

Discussion: 62 comments so far…

  1. What a pant-load! Another area where the Pope (illegals' godfather) is pimping American citizens for the benefit of his BROWN slaves. I don't have a boner for illegals, however, what is being done to teach African immigrants the English language? The MT suits and dress that comprised the NAACP, NUL, NABJ (print-video), Congressional Black Caucus-CBC-comical blacks in congress, should all be be outraged. Hey! Kanye' West! How about financing a national protest bus-tour, "Deport Criminal and Illegal Mexicans", who are stealing our jobs, selling us cociane, resegregating our neighborhoods, retarding Black student acheivements due to their non-English speaking students, re-introducing diseases that we've already cured, nullifying our votes, etc. Ooops! Sasha and Melia Obama don't interact with criminal and illegal Mexican kids.

  2. If Hispanics need to learn English, let them learn English first, not Spanish first.This is 100% educational crappola and Hispanic baloney nonsense. How many foreigners came to America as illiterates during the 1800's and 1900's and learned English in night school first? They didn't learn German, French, Italian, Swedish, Polish, GreeK or Yiddish etc first... Millions upon millions. Now we must teach this special, priveleged immigrant class their own language first, then English? What absolute nonsense.

    This is only an excuse to eventually exclude English from our own country and make Spanish the national language. It can happen and it will happen. Look at California...if you don't speak Spanish you are really lucky to get a state job. CalifoMexico already exists....!

    Am I racist? When it comes to keeping English and demanding use of English as the national language of this country you damn right I am!!!! My grandparents and parents learned it and there is no excuse for these Hispanics not to do it the same way also.

  3. This LULAC outfit has been around for a long time. It looks like a radical left-wing advocacy organization.

    What business does the Clark County school district have in this activity?

    What business does the Mexican government have in this activity?

    Could this be another step in forming the nation of Aztlan in the US Southwest, as a preliminary step toward merging Mexico with the US leading to forming a North American Union?

    Are our Elitists in New York and Washington appearing to be sneakily imposing this North American Union on the American people without the American people knowing about it?

    I think this Las Vegas Sun article is a tip-off in this regard.

  4. Teach them Spanish first and they will NEVER learn English. Wake up America.

  5. America comes first' English comes first' Not your mother country! Whats next are they going to get rid of Webster's Dictionary just because it was written by a white man.

  6. How much of my taxpayer money goes to fund this? It is an outrage that these illegals are getting free services and making taxpayers foot the bill for all of it. These illegal invaders are taking over the southwest and stealing from each and every American taxpayer along the way. Why cant Mexico teach them proper Spanish? This is so wrong! Deport the illegals and we wont have to fund this or any other program for them.

  7. Damn, you all are xenophobic people. This rational presented by you people is what keeps Nevada a second-rate state!
    We don't want to:
    - educate people
    - raise taxes
    - quality higher education

    we want:
    - limited govt involvement
    - all people to share the same ideology
    - all people of color to leave the state, so it can be all "good ol' days"
    - those damn "illegals" to go,

    let the people in the article get an education! so, they can be self-reliant.

  8. Illegal Mexicans need to be deported on sight.
    That is the law of the land.
    Quit wasting money on the lawbreakers.

  9. you're an idiot afvet! your daughter is probably dating a latino and you're upset! return mt tax money from your veteran benefits! damn socialist!

  10. I highly resent the racist comments posted above. Yes, your ancestors assimilated easily to America.
    Europe and Asia, however, had the advantage of thousands of years of culture, education, and stable governments. Mexico, on the other hand, is a majority Indian country, made up of Mestizos and such. Their rulers to this day are usually partially Spanish, as in that country next to France. Get the drift? Think of it. When the white man came to America, they found primitive natives that had been living the same existence for thousands of years. Same with Mexican Indians, except for that mysterious group, the Mayans.

    So let's give our Indian friends a little slack. It may take extra generations to bring our newly arrived immigrants into the 21st century, but they will assimilate. It just takes longer.

  11. This is such an outrage. I would be very interested to know how much of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars are going to "educate" those that are here illegally.

    I applaud anyone in this country lawfully who does their best to assimilate. Unfortunately, one need only flip through television/radio stations, glance at billboard/bustop ads, read the nine foot long window stickers, or go into any store east of the Strip to know that assimilation is nowhere near on the short list for many of these people.

    Sending money back to their country of true loyalty, instead of pouring it into the US economy, does seem to be a priority, however. And, if they manage to get an anchor baby and all the free government goodies that come with it-education, food stamps, AFDC-so much the better.

    Yes, I know. So mean. And, racist, too! But I can't think of any other immigrant group that has displayed such a seemingly brazen and arrogant resistance to assimilation. It makes me so sad to witness such a lack of appreciation because this country is so great and gives people much, they should be estatic to be surrounded by American culture, not fighting to disintigrate it!

    I know they are not all like this-Hispanics are the biggest minority group in our armed forces and so many of them have served proudly and even given their lives for this country. The ones that won't assimilate-from ANY culture, btw-really make my blood boil, though.

  12. More idiotic "assumptions" only make the "assumer" look bad, when trying to defend lawbreakers who are robbing our own citizens from their rightful benefits.
    Get rid of the Illegal Mexicans, and you save 90% of those benefits for our own.

  13. Bedazzling! This program is designed with the desired result being, that the participants (unwittingly will be taught English) ultimately learn English. The comments that oppose this program on the premise that they want all people to learn English only are "bedazzled" like the people who are actually enrolled at these "plazas".

    I am sure the English only camp rules with a stick and if given a carrot to use for an improved out-come, will only use the carrot to hit with, instead of it intended purpose of reward. "Seek first to understand then to be understood" not "my way or the high way" philosophy, but I guess living a life without carrots means there is never any reason for reciprocal communication, just one way pompous dominating control conversations; Ignorance is your best friend.

    This educational program is not about divisive tactics for our community, but rather about inclusive community franchising, some folks (you know who you are) need to read the "Willie Lynch's speech" to understand why they think as they do.

  14. Assimilation is what the Pilgrims did at Plymouth rock isn't it; get a clue!

  15. Narcissa and the rest of you that love to hate on the Hispanics, "the Mexicans", "the illegals", cannot see the forest for the trees, as is your want, perhaps your NEED.
    All you need to read is Narcissa's first line:
    "THIS IS SUCH AN OUTRAGE."
    Oh, pahleeeeze. Everyone in this story is trying to do the right thing here. Do you even BOTHER to read the article?
    Becoming literate and fluent in English is good for these adults, their children, and the community. How can you argue otherwise?
    p.s.
    Just because they are Spanish speakers does not make them "illegal."

  16. So the mexicans need to come to the U.S. and learn spanish? That's just perfect! What's next tattooing classes? The student says she is going to try and get her spanish together only then will she start on english. This a perfect example of making sure to take what you can, While you can. I have a verb for this B.S.!

  17. The Mexican immigrants who secure low-wage jobs are coming from lower social economic families were education is not highly promoted, they are encouraged to work instead of go to school to support their families.

    So, if they are now pursuing education to now be literate, what is the big deal?

    afvet: again, you're an bigot and an idiot! not every participant in the program is a scary illegal! trying to take over your country!

    Stop watching Lou Dobbs and Glen Beck, those guys are d-bags!

  18. Please tell me "who" is highly promoting jobs first and education last, Could it be possible the third world mexican government had something to do with it? Go home and spread your new found education with your people and prosper.

  19. The bigotry that is consistently demonstrated in these comment threads never ceases to amaze me.

    The ignorance demonstrated through criticism of the pursuit of education is tell-tale.

  20. The racist and angry comments above demonstrate WHY Nevada is the dump it is. And nothing will change until those kinds of people leave or die. English wasn't the America's first to begin with. The white people came and kicked out the native Americans from their land. Your ancestors were all immigrants. White people (myself included): this was not OUR land to begin with. We need to accept diversity, and celebrate it. Why do we have to have ONE language? How many do they speak in Switzerland? In almost every European you can find loads of people who speak English, not as a first but as a secoond, third, fourth language. Only American arrogance and idiocy supports the idea that a person must only speak ONE language. And that language be English. Perhaps your braincells are blocked by all the fat you have in your arteries from eating your disgusting junk food? Perhaps is too much of a sedentary life, lying as a acouch potato watching your stupid violent football games while munching on your greasy french fries??. I'm more the Mexicans. I'll take their rice and beans anytime instead of a horrid Big MAc and their soccer for your stupid sport you call "football". Shame on you---how do you like that one, HUH? i hope it hurts, because teh idiocies you people write here are OFFENSIVE to hispanics. They are people too, you know?
    And you will have to swallow this one, because the hispanic population is growing faster than the white population. They will soon outnumber us, so start getting in good terms with them. And no, they are not all criminals. There are more whites in jail than hispanics.

  21. Quit trying to turn this into racism. It's not about color its about stopping at the border and signing the guest book the way the LAW says you have to. Either respect the LAWS of The United States or stay out. We have a right to limit immigration and require people to who want to be here get in line. What we see here is a program directed at the very people who are breaking the LAW by sneaking over the border. Taxpayers have a right to say how the money collected from them is spent. This is a wasteful program and should be shut down. If I have to pay for an illegal to learn something it will be learning the way back to Mexico.

  22. hey LV2009, if you read the article, it does not explicitly state all the participants were illegal. So, board statements are negative and unproductive.

  23. I want ICE agents at these classes checking papers. That's another service I am forced to pay for.

  24. Illegal Mexicans have no business participating in programs that legal immigrants need to have in order to assimilate into our culture (English-speaking). It's a travesty for ignorant border runners with a 2nd grade education to deprive other people (with a winning attitude and attributes) from the benefits we so graciously provide.

  25. This learning program uses materials donated by the Mexican government? Why doesn't the Mexican government try to provide its people with a better way of life instead of encouraging the exportation and economic exile of its poor to the United States?

  26. winning attitudes and attributes? who are those people? lazy white people who don't work hard? and lose their jobs to illiterate Mexicans that are poorly paid?

    afvet, your such a joke. you should not be allowed to use the internet! your a socialist leach!

  27. puff - read the book, the revolution of hope by vicente fox - he proposed a program to boost the economic conditions in mexico in order to keep mexicans in the country, and the 9/11 occurred, the U.S. govt denied the proposal, and we have the same issues as before.

  28. Adrianhu,you come across as a exremely obnoxious person. Opinions are the right of any poster. Your insults only add fuel to the fire. I would say that you are the bigot and you should really think before you go and post your pathetic little tirade's putting others down. Your attitude does nothing for any good points you may want to put across.Grow up.

  29. thanks billy, your right! afvet comments about Mexican immigrants have been extremely enlightening and have contributed to the benefit of society. Additionally, due to people like him, I feel a lot safer in my home, knowing that some right-wing bigot embraces anti-latino sentiments that he learned from Lou Dobbs.

  30. Adrianhu, sarcasm doesn't cut it either. If you want to make a comment that means something to other readers do it with style. As soon as the insults start you lose your credibility. If you had any good points I ignored them because a written tirade is as boring as hell. I didn't get through afvet's either.

  31. you're right. i will be tactful with my comments (not-being sarcastic), it is quite annoying to read comments from the bloggers about "Mexicans go home!" but, then we expect that community to clean up after us (hotel industry, service, and construction). So, my point is "dedicated americans"
    make up your mind!?!?

  32. If English was good enough for Jesus its good enough for me!

  33. Hello:Hello

    Aramaic Language, Semitic language closely related to Hebrew. Originally the language of the Aramaeans (see Aram), it was used, in many dialectical forms, in Mesopotamia and Syria before 1000BC and later became the lingua franca of the Middle East (see Assyro-Babylonian Language). Aramaic survived the fall of Nineveh (612BC) and Babylon (539BC) and remained the official language of the Persian Empire (539-337BC). Ancient inscriptions in Aramaic have been found over a vast area extending from Egypt to China.

  34. Citizens of America need to point out that Illegal Mexicans are the worst of the illegals, and need to be removed from American soil as soon as possible. It's that simple. We got along just great for 200+ years without them, and we can do even better by their absence, since we can save the tax monies for our own citizens.
    Again, it's that simple.

  35. HEY MORGAN: iT IS NOT JUST ABOUT SPEAKING SPANISH IT IS ABOUT THE LOADS OF PAPERWORK THAT HAVE BEEN CONVERTED TO SPANISH FOR THEIR SAKE. IN WHAT OTHER COUNTRY WOULD YOU FIND THAT?

    WHY ARE THEY SO RESISTENT TO LEARING ENGLISH AND BECOMING REAL LEGAL US CITIZENS? 'CAUSE THEY WANT TO MAKE IT AN EXTENSION OF MEXICO...WAKE UP DUNDERHEADS.... ITS EASIER THAT WAY. THAT WAY YOU WILL WAKE UP ONE DAY AND BE CUTTING LAWNS FOR THEM!!!

  36. I am currently serving in Afghanistan with an Army Combat Unit. I entered the United States Illegally, lived that way for almost five years. God gave me a great opportunity to finally obtain my Permanent Resident Visa. About five years later I became a US citizen. My pay here is lower than what I make back at home. I am doing this to thank my great country for all the opportunities that I have been blessed with. I still only speak Spanish at home and celebrate cultural events of my native country. I don't think that makes me Anti-American, it fortifies my identity. We have one common goal of living a prosperous life in the US. Why are people so afraid of us? Because I don't resemble a white person? It always comes back to torment the Hispanic community and blame us for all the problems the US is facing. What about all the illegals from Caucasian countries? It saddens my heart to know that there can be so many racists people in my community. The place I call home and hope to raise my children to adore our Country for the Freedoms we enjoy. They must however, never forget who they are and where they come from. The personal identity of an individual is what characterizes their morals. God bless Diverse America! I learned English going through the public school system as an Illegal Immigrant. I am now contributing to our tax system. I guess they made a good investment. What would have happened if they had denied me entry because of the legal status? What would my contribution to society be? (I posted almost the same comment on another article) I miss home and being here makes me want to believe that America is tolerant. I guess I was wrong. God bless.

  37. jt1899: Great to hear you came into our country the Legal way. And you service is greatly needed. But in no way does your service excuse the invasion of the country by illegals of any color ignoring our laws and sneaking into our country. We must protect our borders from these invaders. They have invaded and are now occupying our country. We must act swiftly to remove these invaders and we may need your help to do so.

  38. LasVegas2009-

    I think you misread my comment Sir/Ma'am. I crossed the US border ILLEGALLY in 1994. I still worked on getting my paperwork, which took almost five years. My father who was part of a guest worker program during the 60's petitioned me. I guess I'm one of those invaders in your eyes.

  39. The bootom line is that the immigrants who assimilate (and that includes becoming fluent in English, a language which 300 million Chinese are learning) live better and more productive lives in the U.S. than those who don't. QED.

  40. LasVegas2009- you need to go back to SCHOOL and learn how to read.

    What a great story that of yours, jt1899. Thanks for serving our country and God bless and protect you and your family. Come back safe.

  41. Some of you do not get it...the white Eurpoean has been portrayed in the past 2 decades as the evil force that entered North America via C. Columbus and the Pilgrims. We are being overrun by illegal aliens, the majority from south of our border to the point that in 10-15 years or less they will be the majority in the population.

    For the most part they refuse to assimilate, i.e. blend into the American rainbow mix. You see it every where with their celebration of Cinco di Mayo celebrated in our schools, demands that government forms be in Spanish as well as English, how many Spanish TV stations are now on the air in this area? Our business are bending to them by putting signs in both languages.

    If we follow the course of Monreal Canada with its bilingual system we are really doomed. There public events must be announced in both languages and it is a boodoggle of a mess. Every watch a baseball game from Canada? Its a P.A. system nightmare and a joke of all jokes for the jokers that invented it.

    No other ethnic immigrant group in modern times other than Hispanics refuse to assimilate fully into the American way of life and culture. We don't see it with Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Polynesians, etc,. By hell or high water they will retake this country as their own and all of the sob sisters sympathizing with them will be the ones who will cry for help when it finally happens.

    Spanish will the the only national language of the United States in 30 years. It is happening daily, slowly, but ever so slowly it is becoming a fact of life.

    Am I racist about this? You damn right I am. It is wonderful to be fluent in the language of your own heritage but English is the language spoken throughout the United States and it should be the Natinal language of our nation.
    Every other country in the world has its own national language for government, business, schools,etc although others may be spoken.

  42. Not only have they invaded and occupied but they have also infiltrated the Armed Forces. Time for US Citizens to take action on our on then.

  43. To gunslinger:

    Don't you know a sarcastic joke when you read one? Chill dude.

  44. Yes teach the illegals Spanish.

    This makes total sense since ENGLISH speaking in America will soon be a foreign language.

    Yes let the illegals take over, heck we already have Obuma as a President. Anything is possible now.

    Maybe Loretta Sanchez will be the next president. That would be a double wammo, mexican and a woman. Then the liberal morons could completely destroy the country within the next few presidentail terms.

    This would be just ducky.

  45. Repeated calls to "retake" America fills the balloon of fear exhibited through these threads.
    But I do think we need to take the growing power of this fear-fueled, alternative, imaginary universe more seriously. Calls similar to those made by LasVegas2009 that it is "time for US Citizens [sic] to take action on our on [sic] then [sic]" demonstrates the subversive belief that force directed against those perceived as less than all-American is justified as "pre-emptive" self-defense.

    Incendiary media and the lack of thought sans foresight can foment terrible consequences. It has happened numerous times in the not-so-distant past. I fear it will happen again.

    Goebbels incited resentments against ethnic minorities by fermenting fears of the fall of German civilization and its government being overtaken by "parasites" and "degenerates." Many of the comments are not far-flung from this line of thought. Penned by bigb: "America is losing its identity and landscape. The invasion has been ongoing for years and within a few years will be complete."

    In Rwanda, well-coordinated radio broadcasts systematically created the illusion that the Tutsi minority were internal traitors and gave out lists of names to be targeted. As the attacks by Hutus on the Tutsis escalated, radio talking heads vaunted it all as "self-defense."

    Demonization of an identified target, accusing an ethnic group of conspiring to "overtake" the dominant "culture", the media creating a perception that a crisis actually exists where there is none, and a public with little-to-no knowledge of the situation are just some of the ingredients that can tip a society from so-called "expressive" speech into full-scale repression.

  46. Man a lot of white trash tea baggers here.

    Newsflash*** Hispanic does not = Illegal

    There is no national language in this country.

    Nothing makes people here madder than seeing others get educated.

    Better be nice you will be working for them soon.

  47. Nick: are you an incarnation of birdidreamin?

    Here it is pure and simple for you Democrats, cretins, idiots, Democrats (worth repeating), Leftists and detractors of America; our national language is English. English is the same language that 300 million Chinese are learning. Do you not comprehend what this means? for our future and the future of our children?

  48. Mike we have no official language. You cousin marrying white trash tea bagging republicans better wake up.

    America does not need you

  49. William924: "their address's"??? I think you need to go to that school, together with the Hispanics, to try to learn how to write.

  50. We are the Late Great United States.

  51. Comment removed by staff.

  52. My mother, though living here in the US, didn't speak a word of English until the age of seven. My grandparents still don't speak it. One day while my mother was at home playing she was taken from her home by force and placed in a school with her peers. The only notification my grandparents got was a letter written in a language they couldn't understand. At the school they gave her a name, a religion, cut her hair, and physically punished her if she spoke her native tongue. Two years later she was allowed to return home. This is the story of the Navajo reservation less than a half century ago. Instead of being bitter over the experience my mother took advantage of it. She worked hard in school, got a scholarship, earned a degree, and never looked back. Now she is extremely successful and happy, something that can not be said for her brothers and sisters who decided to remain on the rez and stay "Indian." My point is assimilation is never easy but ultimately necessary.

  53. "Yes teach the illegals Spanish.

    This makes total sense since ENGLISH speaking in America will soon be a foreign language." - Vegas Insider

    English isn't even the official language, it's defacto, get it right, and it won't be a foreign language, so stop it, you sound... lol.

    "Maybe Loretta Sanchez will be the next president. That would be a double wammo, mexican and a woman. Then the liberal morons could completely destroy the country within the next few presidentail terms." - VegasInsider

    I take this as a racist comment. Repubics complained that Obama was a muslim and hung out with terrorist. You're just not wanting to see someone that looks different that you.

    So what if a Mexican and a woman is president? Doesn't make a difference. I'll remind you that you have to be a U.S. national to be here and Obama was born in Hawaii, not Kenya. It's ridiculous how you unintelligent people fall for this kind of stuff, it's hilarious. All you do is follow the media.

  54. mr_meowinton

    Did EL LOBO your boyfriend let you out of your cage so you could write a response?

  55. qwill:

    Yes I can, easy.

    My post was not meant for a single serving, as this post is, rather it was meant for general consumption to allow others the info of Aramaic Language.

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