Vanessa Sierra-Jurado

English 133-02

Dr. Jason Peters

25 January 2018

Learning to Love My Culture through Literacy

Growing up in a big family, my parents were never able to give me much individualized

attention as I was developing skills as a child. My parents were immigrants – my mother from

Coneto de Comonfort, Durango, MX; my father from Acámbaro, Guanajuato, MX - who had

come to the United States as teenagers in hope of getting a better life than the one they were

living. They worked hard to support themselves and receive more opportunity. My parents were

not fluent in English when I was born. I learned from watching my older siblings, seeing how

they interacted with other people and developed the ability to speak bilingually. My community

in San Jose, CA, consisted of a majority of Hispanic families like mine. My parents spoke to me

in Spanish; I spoke to my siblings in English and Spanish; and I learned to speak English at

school for my first nine years. I slowly learned about the larger world that existed.

In the first grade, my teacher would teach the class a few words of American Sign

Language every day. Being bilingual, learning a third mode of communication could only

improve my chances of making connections with more people. However, ASL did not add

another language to read and write in. It was not until I got to Newark Memorial High School

where I began to write more heavily in Spanish. Studying Spanish allowed me to reconnect with

the culture I was born into and had grown apart from. My first year of Spanish class was not as

successful as it could have been because our teacher was on maternity leave for most of the

school year, leaving us with substitute teachers who could not effectively teach us.
 During my second year of Spanish class I began to write papers and make presentations

in Spanish. I learned the various conjugations that existed in the Spanish language, as well as

variations in the language across the world. I discovered that some Spanish words were native to

my parents’ home country of Mexico, and some were even more exclusive to their regions within

the nation, and they either had different or no meanings in other countries in Latin America. My

teacher was a Columbian middle-aged woman who was a passionate representative for the Latina

community. Her name was Mrs. Przybyla.

The following year of high school, I had Mrs. Przybyla again for Spanish class. This year

was AP Spanish language and culture, meaning we had to be able to speak, read and write

fluently for our exam held in May. I believe the way she taught this class was very effective in

getting me to become literate with the Spanish language. At the beginning of the year, each

student selected a Latin American country that we would be researching throughout the school

year. I chose to do my successive projects on Chile, a country I had never even Googled before.

Mrs. Przybyla was very supportive when helping us prepare our presentations. She gave me a lot

of guidance on how to do research for my papers and presentations before I had even learned to

do a research paper in my AP English language class. I began to study various aspects of Chile

intensively. I studied its literature, customs and culture, history as well as its society while doing

several projects. I read authors like Isabel Allende and studied events such as Chile’s war for

independence from Spain in the early 1800s. While studying Chile’s culture, she encouraged me

to look up Chile’s art and architecture, in which I fell in love with. She knew I was pursuing a

future in art because art classes were all I ever wanted to take in high school. Writing a research

paper on Chile’s art and architecture really allowed me to bond with a new culture and got me

really involved in an assignment.

 When it was time to do my presentation, I was so excited because it was the first

academic presentation I enjoyed putting together. I had various presentation aids, including

videos and photographs of art pieces and buildings in Chile. I spoke easily, because I was more

than happy to share my knowledge with others. It was one of my most successful presentations,

and Mrs. Przybyla expressed a great appreciation for it. I thanked her for her advice with the

project and I felt connected to her culturally. With her guidance throughout the year, I was able

to improve my skills with writing and speaking. She urged me to read more difficult literature,

which expanded my vocabulary as I matured as a student. She helped me analyze readings,

giving me tips on how to use context clues to be able to understand new terminology I would see

in older pieces of writing. She also gave me direction on how to write analytical essays in

preparation for the AP exam. With all of this help, I scored a five on that exam and I felt I owed

it to her.

Beyond academic work, she encouraged me to get involved with my own culture and

represent my Hispanic community. She was such a proud Colombian woman that she proudly

expressed her culture everyday through her unique style. She would wear beautiful Colombian

dresses to school and always promoted diversity. She hosted Hispanic-cultured events that I

began to take part of after she helped me realize I had a lot of culture in my genetics. I continued

to bond with her through our similar taste in cultural music and food. Mrs. Przybyla’s guidance

completely altered my high school experience. I began to represent my culture on a day-to-day

basis, which opened me up to a new community of people and allowed me to associate myself

with my extended family more. Now, I continue to read, write and verbally communicate with

other people in both English and Spanish, and have sworn to never ignore my inherited culture. I
am thankful for the skills I acquired from the lovely woman as a great role model and literacy

sponsor because I can keep them with me for the rest of my life.