Oxnard School District students piled into a class for another day of cultural lessons on July 21, thanks to a state- and federally funded program that pairs teachers from Mexico with students in Ventura County.
Hector Ulises Gabino Martinez, an English teacher at an elementary school in Mexico, greeted a class of about 22 students by saying, ‘buenos días,’ Spanish for ‘good morning,’ in a classroom at Lemonwood Elementary School.
Gabino Martinez is one of four Mexican educators who were chosen to spend July teaching Spanish vocabulary and Mexican culture to migrant children in the county as part of a special Migrant Education Program.
The program aims to provide over 2,100 migrant students in the county with specialized educational opportunities, said Maria Ponce-Montañez, migrant education coordinator for the Ventura County Office of Education.
Students enrolled in the program are children of migrant workers, who have had agricultural experience within the last three years and often move around, Ponce-Montañez, said.
While the Migrant Education Program was established in 1966, the binational program, which brings Mexican educators to U.S. schools, only started in the county three years ago, said Ponce-Montañez.
Two educators are teaching in Lemonwood Elementary School, one in Art Haycox Elementary School in Port Hueneme and another in Glen City Elementary Global STEAM Academy in Santa Paula, Ponce-Montañez said.
Martin Gandara, a teacher at Driffill Elementary School in Oxnard, said he wished he had participated in the program when he first arrived in the U.S.
“Being able to be in touch with that cultural background is important,” Gandara said, lamenting his lack of cultural knowledge at an early age.
The majority of Gabino Martinez’s students in Morelia, the capital of the Mexican state of Michoacán, are from the country, while his students in Ventura County can have a wide array of Latin-American backgrounds.
It’s a toss-up whether students who participate in the binational summer program are aware of some of the cultural lessons taught before entering the classroom, said Gabino Martinez.
Scarleth Garcia, a 12-year-old who completed sixth grade in the spring, said she appreciated the lessons in Mexican culture as she and her family are from Ecuador.
She participated in a lesson on July 21 called the Baile del Toro, or Dance of the Bulls, a tradition from Michoacán.
She and her classmates decorated a papier-mâché bull similar to a piñata, called a ‘torito de petate.’ They took turns pretending to be the bull, while others goaded them with plastic ribbons.
Ernesto Centeno Araujo covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at ecentenoaraujo@vcstar.com, 805-437-0224 or @ecentenoaraujo on Instagram and X.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Mexican teachers exchange culture with Ventura County migrant students
Reporting by Ernesto Centeno Araujo, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ernesto Centeno Araujo, Ventura County Star | USA TODAY Network
