Teaching a culture

A taco and a hamburger: seemingly different on the outside, but essentially the same.
Before arriving at this conclusion, however, the two foods — or at least actors representing them — had an earnest discussion Monday morning about their differences in front of students at elementary schools throughout the ECISD.
But then they realized — after the brief and frank bilingual exchange about their existential dilemma — the two are “cousins.”
“They are different on the outside, but they’re the same on the inside,” said Juan Gaytan, a Spanish teacher at Permian High School whose class participated in the special Hispanic Heritage Month program at ECISD. “Just like people.”
And such was the tone in elementary school classrooms throughout the Ector County Independent School District as several bands of traveling students from the district’s three high schools toured the city teaching elementary school students about the importance of Hispanic heritage on Columbus Day.
The hamburger-taco analogy, delivered bilingually in a skit by pairs of students, capped off a presentation the students made to their younger audience about the significance of Hispanic culture on a day often celebrated from European historical perspective.
Not on this Columbus Day, however.
From conquistadors to Aztecs to Mexican cowboys known as “vaqueros,” the student educators took their audiences through a different tale of life in the New World, a story that braids the European conquests with the legacy of Hispanics, touching many major points along the way.
“It’s kind of a mix of everything,” Gaytan said about the program, which is now in its sixth year.
“It was wonderful,” Blanton Elementary School second-grade teacher Tonya Clark said after the presentation. “They did a wonderful job. They were very personable. It’s fun to see what they do, especially at the end when they did the little skit with the hamburger and taco.”
Across the hall, second-grade teacher Janice Hair followed her students’ round of applause for their presenters — 16-year-old sophomore Arthur Yarbrough and 17-year-old sophomore Catherine Barron, both from Permian — with a question to her class.
“I told them they were going to have a treat today,” Hair said to the presenters before turning to her class. “Wasn’t that a nice treat?”
“Yes,” the class responded in unison.
After the presentation, Yarbrough noted he was worried the student wouldn’t understand some of the Spanish in the skit, but judging from the questions the students asked afterward, they seemed to get the gist.
“I was kind of worried,” he said. “Sometimes it uses some pretty advanced language. I worried they wouldn’t understand.”
After touring the schools, the tables turned and the high school presenters became the audience for a group of prominent community leaders from around town who stressed the importance of education, particularly for sometimes disadvantaged Hispanic students, during a special presentation at the Odessa College Sports Center.
Among the special guests were the University of Texas of the Permian Basin President David Watts, United Way of Odessa Executive Director Dwayne Bennett and a handful of local business owners and distinguished individuals who reiterated the importance of education in the lives of those with dreams.
Luis Galvan, the 28-year-old owner of Young Pro Tree Service and a UTPB graduate who told the students about his own winding path to success as a business owner, encouraged the students to “aim for the stars, shoot for the sky.”
He cited the high dropout and teen pregnancy rates among Hispanic teenagers before encouraging them to be careful of falling into the wrong crowd or settling for less than their full potential.
“Just be careful,” Galvan said. “Pay attention to what you’re doing today. The decisions you make today will affect you for the rest of your lives.”
Bennett, too, shared his story with the teenagers, reminding them that an education is the key to success, even if they have to endure years and years of setbacks before they finally achieve their next degree.
Then Watts took the microphone and told the audience about the many financial aid opportunities offered locally for students pursuing a college degree — which, he noted, research has shown to increase a high school graduate’s lifetime earnings by at least $1 million.
“This community,” Watts said, “wants nothing more than for you to be successful.”