A-10
LOCAL & REGION
THE NEW MEXICAN Thursday, September 26, 2013
Heritage language programs on the rise By Laura Wides-Muñoz The Associated Press
MIAMI — Dorothy Villarreal grew up dreaming in Spanish, first in Mexico and later in South Texas, where her family moved when she was 6. She excelled in school — in English. But at home life was in Spanish, from the long afternoon chats with her grandparents to the Spanish-language version of Barbie magazines she eagerly awaited each month. She figured she was fluent in both languages. Then the Harvard University junior spent last summer studying in Mexico and realized just how big the gaps in her Spanish were. “We were talking about the presidential election, and there was so much I wanted to explain,” Villarreal said. “We’d end up playing a guessing game where I’d speak in English, and my friends, they’d speak back in Spanish to guess what I was saying.” Villarreal’s experience is increasingly common in America, where 1 in 5 children grows up in a home where English isn’t the sole language. To help them fill in the gaps, universities are adapting their foreign language curriculum, in part to better prepare graduates for a globalized world where it pays to be professionally fluent in more than one language. Children in multilingual homes grow up a step ahead of other would-be language learners. They can easily engage in small talk or follow the latest soap opera in their families’ native language. Yet when it comes to meatier topics, or reading and writing, they are stuck. The linguistic gaps become apparent in high school, where these students can snooze through basic language classes but often drown in more advanced ones — if their heritage language is even offered. After all, how many American high schools offer Arabic or Korean? With 37 million Spanishspeakers in America, most heritage classes are in Spanish, and courses have bloomed across campuses in California, Florida and several Southwestern states. They have also begun to
University of Miami student Gabriel Dias studies on Sept. 9 the daily lesson plan on his computer during a Spanish language class in Coral Gables, Fla. J. PAT CArTEr/THE ASSoCIATEd PrESS
take hold in schools like Harvard University, which added a course this year. Beyond language, the heritage class offers Villarreal a rare academic space to examine topics she’s less comfortable talking about with her mostly white and upper-middleclass peers. She contrasted the heritage class with the course she runs to immediately after: an advanced, general Spanish class on cultural practices of the U.S.-Mexico border. In that class, Villareal said she is uncharacteristically quiet. “We’re talking in this abstract way about what the border is, and I’m thinking I went to school five minutes from the border. For me the border is what shuts down my school when the [Department of Homeland Security] helicopters come to find the people trying to cross,” she said. Heritage language programs have existed in the U.S. in some form for more than a century as a way to retain both language and culture — even as Englishonly movements waxed and waned. German schools were common in the late 1800s. Youth in California have long attended weekend Chinese and Japanese programs. Bilingual Spanish classes have been around for decades. Yet the development of separate heritage language university instruction is relatively new. The University of Texas-Pan American received funding from the Department of Education in 2007 to create a minor in medical Spanish for heritage speakers, and other schools are beginning to replicate the program. Spanish classes aren’t the only
heritage courses on the rise. Harvard already has heritage programs in Russian, Chinese and Korean, which the U.S. government considers strategically critical languages for diplomacy and counterintelligence. The National Heritage Language Resource Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, funded by the U.S. Department of Education since 2006, recently conducted the first national survey of higher education heritage instruction and found specialized instruction in 34 states. Chinese, Korean, Russian and Farsi were among the most popular after Spanish. Despite increasing numbers of these programs, funding for them remains limited. University of Pennsylvania Professor Emeritus Surendra Gambhir helped start one of the nation’s first higher education Hindi heritage language programs but said most of the 100 or so schools offering Hindi don’t have the resources to create dual language tracks. The Department of Education cut the Resource Center’s funding two years ago due to budget constraints. Kimberly Potowski, a linguistics professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who is writing a textbook for heritage language professors, says there are significant differences in how language should be taught to heritage learners. For example, heritage students aren’t learning about exotic, foreign cultures, they’re reconnecting with their own. And rather than abstract exercises, they should be encouraged to interview relatives or to analyze emails to friends for grammatical mistakes.
Police notes The Santa Fe Police Department is investigating the following reports: u A man reported at 8:26 a.m. Tuesday that someone broke into his car parked at the Hampton Inn Santa Fe, 3625 Cerrillos road, and took a camera. u A radar detector and a GPS device were taken from a car parked at the Hampton Inn Santa Fe, 3625 Cerrillos road, between 11 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday. u Someone reported he was drinking with a man at 5:38 p.m. Tuesday when the man battered him and threatened him with a knife in 1800 block of Espinacitas Street. u A woman reported that someone pried her car window open and stole her purse in the 2500 block of Cristos road between 9:20 and 10:20 p.m. Tuesday. u Someone a broke into a vehicle in the 4500 block of Mesa del oro Loop between 4 and 6 a.m. Monday. Nothing was reported missing. u Two vehicles were broken into between 4 and 6 a.m. Monday in the 6400 block of Paseo del Sol. u Someone reported that a man and a woman took her cellphone while she walking in the 2000 block of Hopewell Street between 10:15 and 11:26 a.m. Monday. u A woman in the 300 block of West Zia road reported that someone broke into her home and took several items between 12:30 and 3:15 p.m. Sunday. u Someone broke into a house at the 1300 block of Ferguson Lane between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tuesday, and stole a computer and a gold ring worth a combined $2,300. u roger Vigil, 30, of Española was arrested at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of shoplifting at Wal-Mart, 5701 Herrera drive. Vigil allegedly was found with about $450 worth of merchandise, and he also had a bench warrant for his arrest. u A man in the 500 block of Juanita Street said an aide borrowed his car and when he returned the vehicle at 10 p.m. Tuesday, the aide was drunk and the car was damaged. The
employer also said $200 was missing from his wallet. u A man reported that two bags containing $1,200 worth of personal items were taken from his car Tuesday at a Motel 6, 3007 Cerrillos road. u Aaron Foster, 27, of Española was arrested on charges of assault upon a peace officer, resisting an officer and disorderly conduct at Galisteo Street and West San Francisco Street between 8:55 and 9:05 p.m Tuesday. u An employee at Coach, 8380 Cerrillos road, reported that a group of males shoplifted three purses worth a combined $1,414 between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Monday. u A man reported Tuesday that $1,000 was missing from his wallet after a hotel maid at La Posada de Santa Fe resort & Spa, 330 E. Palace Ave., entered his room without his permission. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the following reports: u Someone entered a home off Shenandoah Trail and stole appliances between Sept. 6 and Tuesday. u A couple of brass platforms were taken from a home off rancho Sin Vacas Circle between Sept. 13 and Tuesday. u Someone broke into a shed in the 2200 block of Plaza Montoya and took auto parts and copper wiring between Monday and Tuesday.
Speed SUVs u The Santa Fe Police department listed the following locations for mobile speedenforcement vehicles: SUV No. 1 at E.J. Martinez Elementary School from 7:25 to 8:15 a.m. and 2:10 to 2:55 p.m., and on West San Mateo drive between Galisteo Street and St. Francis drive at other times; SUV No. 2 at Chaparral Elementary School from 7:25 to 8:15 a.m. and 2:10 to 2:55 p.m., and on rodeo road between Galisteo road and Camino Carlos rey at other times; SUV No. 3 at Via Caballero del Sur between Pasaje del Herrero and Viaje Pavo real.
Private transport firms under scrutiny after Okla. escape All 8 prisoners were reapprehended
Daily News reported Wednesday. Two prisoners kicked out a partition and moved into the front of the van. By Justin Juozapavicius According to the newspaper, The Associated Press one of the guards stepped outside the hospital and noticed TULSA, Okla. — The escape the van was gone, then asked of eight inmates from an unatpeople in the emergency room tended van in Oklahoma highwhether anyone had moved it. lights problems with private After he explained there were prison transport companies that inmates still inside, the hospital don’t face the same scrutiny as workers called police, the newsstate corrections systems, offipaper reported. cials said Wednesday. Schools were locked down If the transport van belonged temporarily as police searched to the state’s prison system, the the city for two inmates in street offenders would never have clothes — one in a camouflage been left unattended, Oklahoma shirt and the other wearing a Department of Corrections T-shirt depicting a teddy bear. spokesman Jerry Massie told The inmates were from jails The Associated Press. in the western and northern “It’s DOC policy: You don’t United States and were being leave them out of your sight,” transported among agencies in Massie said in an interview the same regions of the country. Wednesday. They faced charges ranging State corrections policy from nonpayment of child supalso maintains that during any port to sex offenses, local police transport, “all offenders will be said. considered high risk” and the Weatherford is about an hour transporting officer “will not west of Oklahoma City on Interstop the vehicle for any unnecstate 40. essary purpose.” All eight prisoners were “I’m just glad they weren’t back in police custody by late our prisoners,” Massie said. Tuesday and are being held in The inmates escaped Tuesday the Weatherford city jail until after guards employed by Pristhe Nashville company sends a oner Transportation Services of replacement van to pick them Nashville, Tenn., had stopped in up, Assistant Police Louis FlowWeatherford to deliver one or ers said Wednesday. two sick inmates to a hospital. “I’m not going to comment Guards left the inmates alone on the policies of a private comin the van, with the keys inside pany,” Flowers said Wednesday. and the motor running so the “Our policy in our department inmates could enjoy the airwouldn’t leave a prisoner in a van by himself or a transport conditioning, the Weatherford
van like that.” Thor Catalogne, an owner of the transport company, declined comment Wednesday on his company’s policies. Police said the van traveled about a mile before stopping. Two inmates ran away while the other six stayed nearby. Officers recovered a 12-gauge shotgun that had been inside the vehicle. No injuries were reported. Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford was locked down for about two hours while police searched for the two inmates who ran away. The pair, Lester Burns and Michael Coleman, were taken into custody in Weatherford. Coleman, who was wearing the teddy bear shirt, was being held for assault and Burns for failure to pay child support, police said. Critics of private prison transportation companies have complained that they are poorly regulated. “This is an example of what happens when we privatize functions that belonged to the government,” said Richard Allen Smith, a spokesman for In The Public Interest, a Washington-based research and policy nonprofit that studies the effects privatization has on communities. “We lose two things: transparency and accountability. “We’ve seen this in many sectors, specifically with the prison system, when we contract and outsource public services,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
Funeral services and memorials CHARLOTTE HOLLIS WILLIAMS Born and raised in Marion, Louisiana, Mrs. Williams was a longtime resident of Shreveport, LA, and resided in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the time of her death. She passed away at the Sierra Vista Residence in Santa Fe on Saturday, September 21, 2013, of natural causes. She was 90 years old, having been born on October 12, 1922. She was the daughter of John Tom Hollis and Mattie Lou Smith Hollis, both deceased. Visitation will be held at Broadmoor Baptist Church, Shreveport on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. Funeral services will be held in the Memorial Chapel at Broadmoor Baptist Church at 10:00 AM, Thursday, September 26, 2013 followed by a graveside service at Forest Park Cemetery on St. Vincent Avenue in Shreveport. A celebration of her life will be held at her church home, Rodeo Road Baptist Church of Santa Fe on Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 3:00 PM. She is survived by her son, Milton Lea Williams, II, and his wife, Claudia, of Gainesville, GA; her daughter, Charlotte Anne Williams Stallcup of Santa Fe; three grandsons: Milton Lea Williams, III, and wife Brooke of Atlanta, GA, Spencer Edward Williams and wife Mackey Richard Williams of Austin, TX, and Wesley Stallcup of Albuquerque, New Mexico; two great grandsons, Henry James Williams and Marshall Hollis Williams, both of Atlanta, GA; and several nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her beloved husband of sixty-six years, Milton L. Williams; by an infant daughter; and brothers, J. T. Hollis and George D. Hollis. Mrs. Williams received a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech University in 1944. She worked for a short time after graduation at the Brown Paper Mill in Monroe, La but upon her marriage, devoted her life to the care and nurturing of her family. She was a resident of Shreveport for 60 years. In addition to her service as a dedicated wife and mother, she volunteered her time and efforts to a number of service organizations in Shreveport and was particularly active at the Shreveport Symphony House. Her faith was a central pillar of her life and her church family was as close to her as her own. During her time in Shreveport, she was a member of the Broadmoor Baptist Church and served the church family in many capacities. After moving to Santa Fe, she joined the Rodeo Road Baptist Church where she was loved and cherished. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Rodeo Road Baptist Church Building Fund, 3405 Verda Baja, Santa Fe, NM 87507or The Alzheimer’s Association, P.O. Box 9611, Washington DC, 20090-6011. Funeral arrangements made by Rivera Funeral Services of Santa Fe and Kilpatrick Rose-Neath Funeral Home of Shreveport.
MICHAEL SANDOVAL 73 of Espanola, NM passed away on September 24, 2013 following a lengthy illness. He is preceded in death by his parents, Maguin & Antonia Sandoval; stepfather, Samuel Salazar. He is survived by his sister, Minnie Naranjo (Sotero); brothers: Dave Sandoval (Isabel), Dennis Sandoval (Louella); sons: Michael Sandoval Jr., companion (Linda), Martin Sandoval, James Sandoval (Tina); daughter, Jeanette Gerk (Stacy); and grandson, Ryan Sandoval. He is also survived by several nieces and nephews. Honorary Pallbearers are: Bobby Tainter, Frank Naranjo, Dennis Sandoval Jr. and Alex Gallegos. Funeral Mass will be held at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church on Friday, September 27, 2013, at 10:30 am.
Arrangements by Rivera Family Funeral Home (505) 753-2288. To share a memory, please visit our website at www.riverafuneralhome.com
BRENT EDWARD ST. DENIS Born on July 24, 1960 in San Pablo, CA to Tani Turner and Bucky McCuller, Brent passed away peacefully in his home in Santa Fe, NM on September 19, 2013 leaving behind his beloved only child, daughter, Trisha Nicole St. Denis-Cisneros; and numerous other friends and family. A celebration of life will be held on Friday, September 27, 2013 at the Friendship Club of Santa Fe located at 1915 Rosina Street. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate a donation be made to the Friendship Club of Santa Fe, NM in his name.
To place an Obituary ad call: 986-3000