THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE—Here’s how Southern Berkshire Latino families went from being ‘lost’ in the school system to getting the help they needed
GREAT BARRINGTON – At the start of school last year, Olga Cruz was worried to learn that Berkshire Hills Regional School District was about to hold its first three assemblies — one for each school — in Spanish.
“I thought that maybe something bad was happening,” said Cruz, who has lived in Great Barrington for eight years. “I didn't think that it was because there was going to be support for [the kids] at school.”
But that’s indeed what it was: A move by the district to better serve students and families of non-native English speakers.
For years, towns served by the district had seen an influx of Spanish-speaking families, mostly from Latin America. As of September 2021, 10.7 percent of students enrolled in South County public schools were non-native English speakers.
Cruz and her husband, Gustavo, had spent years trying to do their best for their school-aged daughter. Like other Spanish-speaking families, they knew little about navigating the school system – from class registration, to signing up for extracurriculars, to how school bus routes work.
These three assemblies, held in late August, marked a change – a breakthrough for a network of people from within the Latino community determined to support families in diverse ways.
This is their story.
America Lopez works as a parent liaison for Spanish-speaking families in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District. Lopez believes public schools must build relationships with every family. “As parents we are always going to be concerned, no matter what level of literacy we have. We all want our children to do well in school and we want to do something to support them,” she said.
The forums
The first forum was hosted by Du Bois Regional Middle School and was organized by America Lopez and Marcela Urrea, two community health workers at Volunteers in Medicine. VIM is a nonprofit that provides free healthcare for the uninsured; 75 percent of its patients are immigrants, most of whom are Latino.
Lopez, a Mexican-born Great Barrington resident, began work as the parent liaison for the English language learners in 2020. One of the first things she did was organize two forums for Spanish-speaking families at the Monument Mountain High School.
Despite having lived in the Berkshires for more than 15 years, Lopez had always found it hard to navigate the school system as an immigrant mother, even as a proficient English speaker. She often resorted to asking for advice from families with older children in the Spanish-speaking community.
Within the Latino community, Lopez saw that small miscommunications between schools and newly arrived parents had a big impact on students' education. For example, Latino kids would get off at the wrong bus stop and miss the school day because their parents didn't have transportation to pick them up and to take them to school.
The pandemic made it worse. “Latino families were lost. We were all. And I still knew the language, could read emails and use the computer,” she said.
Lopez says schools must build relationships with every family. “As parents we are always going to be concerned, no matter what level of literacy we have. We all want our children to do well in school and we want to do something to support them,” she said.
To build a bridge, Lopez reached out to over 30 families in the district. After having one-to-one conversations, she used her personal phone to create a group on Whatsapp, a popular and free messaging app, to make the outreach more efficient.
“Sometimes simple things like families receiving an invitation in Spanish, directly through the phone, makes a difference. I’d say ‘Look, it’s very important that you come to this forum because school is about to start and here you are going to find out information about the bus,'” said Lopez.
Olga Cruz attended. She and her husband recall how Lopez introduced herself as a parent liaison, in a job that focused on supporting Latino kids, and wanted to connect them with the many extracurriculars young people had access to, regardless of language proficiency.
Lopez said they would be in touch and encouraged parents to reach out to follow how their children were doing.
For Olga Cruz, it was like a new day. It was nothing like the all-English meetings they had attended since their daughter, Sheyla Cruz, now a high school junior, started middle school.
“In all these years, I have never been in this school, to a forum like this one, and even less in Spanish. I never felt that this was a place for me or for my family,” she said at her house in Great Barrington. “I always thought that I would like to know more and I would like to get information to support my daughter.”
The number of parents attending gave her strength. That bigger group, she felt, would make it easier for Latino students and their families to advocate for themselves – and be heard.
“For me, it was an extraordinary event. Before, we couldn't support our daughter 100 percent. We didn’t even know how! Now, it’s possible for us to be present,” said Cruz.
As a result, parents who have migrated to the Berkshires in the last year have been able to be more present in their children’s education.
There are still things to work through. For example, the Berkshire Hills Regional School District’s website is translated to many languages. But, at least in Spanish, the translation is an automatic one that has not been proofread. The calendar translates “Sunday” into “sol” (“sun” in Spanish), “Wednesday” into “casarse” (the verb “to marry” in Spanish) and “Saturday” into “se sentó” (“he sat” in Spanish).
“If we had not organized anything, then the parents would have been lost."
America Lopez
Lopez says the district depends on her, Lydia Johnson (an ESL teacher) and other advocates to think about engaging immigrant families. “If we had not organized anything, then the parents would have been lost,” she said. “There are many things that are still not happening and we made them happen, but ideally they should continue to happen without anyone saying anything.”
Still, Lopez is fighting at every turn to include everyone. Recently, Monument Mountain High School organized individual parent teacher talks, to discuss each student’s progress. “Before that, if parents had questions they used to bring somebody to translate, because there were not that many students,” said Lopez.
Lopez and Johnson organized parent and ESL teacher individual visits. Lopez said nearly everyone came. "I called them a week before and the day before I called them again and said don't forget that today is the day and only one family [of 16] did not come," said Lopez.
To her surprise, even the brother of a student whose parents were not in the United States, and who skipped school often, came. Lopez had thought it would be pointless to invite him. But the older brother had heard about the meetings through other Latino families.
Lopez said that brother was not aware his younger sibling had been skipping. “We told him, your brother needs to be here more, sometimes he comes, sometimes he doesn't come, I don't know what is going on. Having this conversation helped a lot,” she said. “He did want his brother to go to school and he wanted to know how he could support him.”
Being a newcomer
As more children and families join the Latino community in southern Berkshires, Latino-focused organizations that have been active are changing the way they work.
As VIM’s patient services manager, Natalia DeRuzzio is one of the first people immigrants meet when they arrive in the Berkshires.
She said there are more and more children and families among her patients. “I started working here six and a half years ago. Then, most of our patients were single men,” she said. DeRuzzio migrated to the United States from Colombia in 2012. “Now, especially in the last two years, when the crisis at the border started, we have whole families coming from the border.”
DeRuzzio said the experience of coming to the Berkshires through the southern U.S. border is a difficult one. “These two years have been very complex. The families have a lot more needs. They need legal, medical, and psychological help. We have felt the need to have more professionals that are cultural brokers, that speak the language and understand all the challenges,” she said.
Hipolito Arriaga, 25, left his native Guatemala in the summer of 2021. For two years, a gang kept harassing him, pressuring him to join them. They targeted his employers, demanding they fire Arriaga from his fruit delivery job. Arriaga had to change jobs and live away from his wife and two young children in an effort to protect them.
One day the gang tried to kill him. “Only God knows what happened there. They held a gun to my head, but when they wanted to shoot, the bullet didn't come out,” said Arriaga.
After that, Arriaga decided to seek refuge in the United States, with his older son. Upon his arrival in the Berkshires, Arriaga’s family told him about VIM.
VIM helped Arriaga register his son for school and provided the mandatory vaccines. The program connected Arriaga’s son with a summer camp.
'Ambassadors' of hope at Great Barrington project
As Spanish-speaking children grow into teenagers in South County, another resource for learning and making friends opens up to them. The Railroad Street Youth Project (RSYP) is a community center for 14 to 25 year olds located at Great Barrington’s Memorial Park.
Marina Dominguez, also known as Maru, serves as an immigrant youth outreach advocate to guide Latino youth in a new country. Dominguez was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After interviewing Dominguez, the RSYP team thought she could help at Monument Mountain High School, which had just seen 20 or so new Spanish-speaking students.
Though the project has operated since 1999, most Latino youth didn’t know about it – not until Dominguez started going into both Monument Mountain and Mount Everett Regional High School and telling them about it.
Dominguez organized her first event for Spanish-speaking youth for Christmas 2021. First, she needed to understand what they needed most. “The situation was all over the place. The kids in the classroom were isolated from the rest of the class. The communications that reached the children were all in English. So they didn't even read them because they didn't understand,” said Dominguez.
Now, a group is shaping ways to make the school more welcoming. “We were able to get a bilingual, Spanish-speaking psychologist at the school and at least have a group session once a week,” said Dominguez.
At the Great Barrington youth project, Dominguez also hosts the Alas Club (“alas” means wings in Spanish). This weekly social gathering happens Friday from 3 to 7 p.m.
Sometimes attendees sit around the project’s sofas. Other days they go out and get pizza or eat at a Latino restaurant. They talk and share the common challenges they’re going through. About the journey to cross the southern border. About missing family members not in the United States. About being a teenager – including life at home.
Dominguez acts as coach. “They are dealing with billions of things besides being teenagers. ‘Why am I here? What do I do from now on, how do I integrate myself? Should I work, study, or do both?’”
She guides them through their choices. “I tell them that there are more options besides working 12 hours a day to be able to help your family. ‘I know that’s why you came here, but you can change your mind,’” she said, referring to conversations she has with young people. She tells them community college is possible “even if your English isn’t great, even if you’re undocumented.”
“We are the ambassadors … saying no matter what your immigration status, you can. You can do anything you want. There's nothing stopping you. These are things that are not talked about formally in school.”
DeRuzzio says summer activities are important for families. “It’s a beautiful summer opportunity for the kids, but it’s also vital for the parents so they can work during the time of the year when there’s more jobs and survive the winter,” she said.
Arriaga saw the impact the summer camp had on his son. “My son, even back in Guatemala, was very shy. He only spoke with me, not a lot with his mother or my family. He would go to a place to sit quietly, other kids would talk to him, he would crouch down,” said Arriaga. “He really loved the summer camp. Now he has the courage to go out, to want to play.”
Since his son started first grade this September, Arriaga is surprised at how much support there is.
Every week, America Lopez, the parent liaison, who also works for VIM, talks to Arriaga about how his son is doing at school. And much more. “When my son has a pediatrician appointment, America [Lopez] does everything she can to bring him.” Arriaga finds it hard to take time off from work, and welcomes the help.
A teacher’s help
His son’s ESL teacher, Lydia Johnson, also communicates with Arriaga frequently. “Teacher Johnson told me, ‘If there' s anything, talk to me. Don’t be embarrassed.’”
“At the beginning I was embarrassed because I didn’t know her,” said Arriaga. “Reaching out was hard, because I don’t know things here and I’m embarrassed of what may happen. But Johnson would always tell me. ‘Here, everything is calm, nothing bad is going to happen.’”
Johnson said that fear is common among immigrant families. “I’ve visited almost all my students. Parents are welcoming and a little afraid, because they don't know if you're gonna call immigration on them or something. But they do want the kids to succeed,” she said.
Johnson, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, takes some of what she learns back to school, urging teachers to be more understanding. “I let them know, ‘Hey, this is the situation at home, this is what [this kid has] been through. So let's work a little bit on that social emotional component,’” she said.
While encouraging other teachers to check in with students is important, Johnson acknowledges that within bigger classes, it’s hard to find time for it.
But it’s different in her ESL classes, she teaches from kindergarten to fourth grade in the Berkshire Hills district. She works with groups of up to seven students and makes time to let students see she cares about them, beyond them fulfilling the class’ requirements.
Johnson said losing a grandparent, a difficult moment during childhood, is harder on children who are undocumented. “One day, I asked a student, ‘How are you?’ She wouldn't even look at me.’” Johnson kept asking until she figured out that the girl’s grandfather in Ecuador was dying. The student realized she couldn't go back to say goodbye.
Johnson often acts as liaison with other teachers, helping them understand what it’s like to be an English learner. Until someone reaches a middle to high level of proficiency, they are going to be translating in their native language.
“During your classroom, you ask a question. [The student tries] to understand the question. They translate it to Spanish. Try to find the answer in Spanish, try to find the words in English,” said Johnson. “And after all that is done, then they need the courage to answer. We're talking about 10 or more seconds.”
Teachers need to keep that in mind, Johnson says. “Ten seconds of silence, this is horrible. But they're thinking, you have to give them the time to think. The more they do it, the more automatic the process comes.”
Aina de Lapparent Alvarez can be reached at aalvarez@berkshireeagle.com.