Teachers Persevere in Cambridge's El Salvador Sister City

Douglas Vasquez learned to write from a popular teacher in his native town of San Juan de las Flores, El Salvador, by tracing the alphabet in the dirt of a hill where he lives.

Today, the 17-year-old resident of Cambridge's sister city is one of his town's 18 popular teachers. He and his peers, appointed by the community to impart the knowledge they have amassed, teach about 350 youngsters of San Juan de las Flores in the new town schoolhouse.

"Through the efforts of the community we built a school. But it's nothing like the schools here," Vasquez said. "The walls are made of dirt. We don't have any of the materials necessary to teach classes."

Vasquez is one of five teachers from his town who arrived in Cambridge two weeks ago as part of a youth exchange. Although the group has met with the Cambridge City Council and School Committee, "We've come mainly to visit the schools," Vasquez said.

At an informal dinner at the Longfellow School last night, the teachers from El Salvador spoke in Spanish about the obstacles they have faced as they attempt to further their own educations while teaching others in their communities.

Vasquez said that in El Salvador, he sometimes walks up to four hours per day to a neighboring town where he takes classes from the faculty of a local university.

For teacher Rosa Lilian Quintanilla, 21, teaching, studying and doing chores around the house are all in a day's work.

"I teach classes in the morning. Then I help my mother make lunch from noon to 1 p.m., because we're twelve siblings, and my parents make fourteen," Quintanilla said. "Then from 1 to 5 p.m. I study."

One of the visiting teachers said he was impressed by the way classes are conducted in Cambridge. He said he wasn't surprised, though, because of the wealth of resources available in the schools here.

"The classes are very developed because here they have all the materials," said Victor Mejia, 21.

Though the youths don't speak English, they have shared their experiences with Cambridge students through the help of bilingual teachers, said Vasquez.

"In the schools there are teachers who know quite a lot of Spanish," Vasquez said. "We coordinate with them to be able to speak with the children. We speak in Spanish and they translate."

Last night at the Longfellow School, the delegation from El Salvador joined local students and teachers in singing songs of peace--one of which the visiting teachers had taught Cambridge students and teachers when they visited El Salvador in April.

Youths from both countries chanted the Spanish language song, which has lyrics that translate, "Down with war. Up with peace. We children want to laugh and sing."

The Cambridge delegation to El Salvador included five students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. The visit from the teachers of El Salvador is the other half of the youth exchange, said Patrick M. Sheridan, a Cambridge public school teacher who was part of the group.

The Sister Cities Program provided a grant for the exchange, but it's still an accomplishment that the teachers from El Salvador were able to visit. "It's a pretty big thing for people from the sister city to come here because its so hard to get visas," Sheridan said.

The group from El Salvador, which arrived in Cambridge on November 15, will be in town until Tuesday.

They will then go to New York where the international headquarters of the Sister Cities Program are located.

Popular teacher Nelson Orellana, 16, said he was enjoying his stay in Cambridge, particularly the experience of being in an urban environment. "I like it because it's quite different from the community--well, it's a city," he said.

Though Quintanilla said Cambridge is "very pretty," she said two things could have made the group's stay here better: warmer weather and spicier food.