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Noe Avalos came to this country with a second grade education.
He didn’t speak English and hadn’t learned to read or write in his native Spanish. It didn’t pose too big a problem at his first packing house and production jobs, but now Avalos has his own business and feels inadequate when he can’t fully communicate with a customer.
So at age 47, he’s going back to school.
He and his wife, Angela Meza, will be among the first participants in a program the local Mexican Consulate and United Methodist Church are launching in Omaha.
The first of its kind in the consulate’s Nebraska-Iowa region, the Plaza Comunitaria (Community Plaza) offers a different twist than some better-known English as a second language programs.
The goal is the same: integration into a new culture and land. But ESL classes are taught in English, and Community Plaza instruction primarily is in Spanish.
Books, computers and training will be supplied by the Mexican government, which eventually plans to expand the program to other cities in Nebraska and Iowa.
The idea, organizers say, is to build a solid foundation of reading, writing, social studies and math in one’s native language. For Spanish-speaking adults who lack basic education from their own country, that route develops a greater capacity and confidence to transition into classes that teach English.
Some 300 Community Plazas operate across the United States. In Mexico, there are about 3,000.
Local graduates will earn the equivalent of a GED from Mexico, although immigrants from other nations also are invited to participate in the free program, said Mexican Consul Jorge Espejel.
Like Avalos, most enrollees plan to continue with ESL and other English courses at the Esperanza de Vida community center, 1945 Vinton St. The United Methodist Church opened the immigrant center in February, and it will house the Community Plaza program.
Patricia Gandarilla, director of the center and the program, said Community Plaza is a missing link to success for many newcomers.
Take parents with school-age kids.
A child comes home with a math assignment. One might think numbers are universal, but not only do some parents have trouble reading the English directions, they might never have solved such problems.
Hence, they’re ill-equipped to ease the child’s stress.
Avalos, born in the Mexican state of Durango, quit school in the second grade to seed fields of beans and corn for about 50 cents a day.
His mother died when he was three months old. His father left. Avalos’s earnings helped his grandmother run their household.
Twenty-eight years ago, he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and a three-day visit to Omaha turned into 13 years.
Whenever he had the chance, Avalos picked up a newspaper or magazine. He taught himself to read enough Spanish, and later, English, to get by.
His English vocabulary has expanded, but Avalos sometimes calls an interpreter to help communicate with a client.
“Sometimes I feel bad,” he said, “because I don’t know how to explain something to a customer, or understand what they want.”
By filling in educational gaps, Avalos, who is slated to be naturalized as a U.S. citizen this month, hopes to expand his home improvement business, which is slumping with the economy.
Together, he and his wife have seven children from previous marriages.
His wife completed sixth grade in Mexico and hopes to learn enough to rise beyond restaurant work and study fashion design, her dream career.
Avalos said he would be happy to help his 7-year-old son complete math homework — or be able to read a book together.
Contact the writer:
444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com
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