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| This is a licensed stock photo for purposes of this blog. It is not one of the families mentioned in Flora's letters. |
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| Flora, an alumni and former student of Warren Hardy Spanish sent us a letter in July and followed up in August 2018. We just updated this blog post with her recent letter. |
July 26 2018
"We have received a wonderful testimonial recently from a woman that is working with immigrants at the border. She talks about having taken Level 2 Spanish and how she is able to speak with these people and how much it means to her. Photos are not allowed at her location, so we are using a stock photo for this blog post."- Warren Hardy
"Dear Warren and Tuli,
I wanted to write to thank you with all my heart for excellent foundation and language skills I learned over the years at your school.
I am sure you are aware of the detained and separated families at the border. Several hospitality shelters here in the border area are receiving families released by ICE. Last week I volunteered at a Lutheran Church in Las Cruces that had received families from Honduras. They had arrived the night before and were on their way to family members in the U.S. who had bought bus or plane tickets for them. Each adult had an ankle bracelet monitor. I was given the job of going over the exit list with each adult making sure each had what he/she/the family needed for the journey: a watch, clean clothes, diapers for baby, a shower before leaving, light jacket for the plane, filled water bottle, backpack, lunches, and most important "Los Papeles" for the authorities.
I used my Spanish all day; thanks to you I was able to converse with the refugees and their children. The only other Spanish speaker on site was the director of the border corps who was making the travel reservations for them. The other volunteers were kind and attentive to all, but they couldn't converse or answer questions.
I can't emphasize enough or thank you enough for my Spanish skills. I learned so much about the journey that the group of twelve made over 15 days by foot, hitchhiking, and train to reach the Juarez/El Paso entry where they were immediately put into detention. Thank goodness they were not separated.
I return on Wednesday when another group arrives; it will be a group that has been separated. They will be newly reunited next Tuesday evening, so the situation will be entirely different and surely more traumatic.
I never thought when I was faced with "The Great Wall of Spanish" (level 2) that I would ever be able to master the preterite or converse in anything other than present tense, that I would be able to use the language for such a meaningful endeavor.
Warren, you once said that eventually we would develop our Spanish personality. I know I will use mine with the work I am doing at the shelter.
My gratitude goes out to you for being a master teacher, for offering the best curriculum ever, and for giving me the gift of Spanish.
¡Gracias por todo!"
Flora
Update - August 2018
BienvenidosI arrived at the Lutheran Church the morning after refugees from El Salvador and Honduras had been released from the detention center. The sign across the door read “Bienvenidos.” They had slept on air mattresses, been given dinner and breakfast, clean clothes, and new shoes.
Now they were preparing for their departure to various cities where they had family or friends who had purchased tickets for travel. Each adult was wearing an ankle bracelet monitor and had to make sure it was charged.
My conversational Spanish skills enabled me to take on the job of going over an itemized departure list to make sure each person or family was completely ready one hour before leaving the center. The list included questions and instructions such as:
¿Ha desinflado usted su colchón? /Have you deflated your air mattress?
¿Hay agua suficiente en su botella para el viaje?/Is there water in your bottle for the trip?
¿Necesita una chaqueta ligera?/Do you need a light jacket?
Puede llevar este reloj durante el viaje/You can wear this watch during the journey.
¿Necesita usted los pañales para el bebé?/Do you need diapers for the baby?
¿Tiene usted sus papeles?/Do you have your papers (forms from immigration)?
Later we chatted in Spanish, and they told me stories of the arduous journey north. Carmen said it took her group from El Salvador twenty days to reach El Paso. Back there her teenage son had been pressured to join a gang. Fleeing violence in Honduras, Luis told me their journey to the U.S. border took fifteen days of walking, hitchhiking, and riding the trains. They all said it was too dangerous to stay.
All day I said good bye to each family in turn: mothers, fathers, and children. They hugged us with much emotion, saying “Muchas gracias. Gracias por todos. Ustedes son muy amables.” I replied, “Estaré pensando en ti.” They had a long hopeful journey ahead. In ten days each would have to report to an immigration official to request asylum. ¡Que le vaya bien!
