Bilingual Education

Angie Papadakis has the best interests of Latinos at heart. Ramon should learn English.

In the 1950s, while I was growing up in Boyle Heights, my parents, of Mexican descent, spoke Spanish to each other and to my relatives. At Santa Teresita, the Catholic elementary school I attended, however, there were no bilingual programs and so I learned English. I had English spelling and writing drilled into me by strict nuns. There is nothing I am so thankful for, nothing that has so benefited me, as that strong early education in reading and writing English.

I retain and am proud of my Mexican and Spanish heritage. Years later, assigned to Mexico City by a U.S. corporation, I studied Spanish at Berlitz before I went, took Spanish classes for two years while there and lived with a Mexican family. I learned Spanish then, by choice.

Latino children need the ability to read and write English well more than they need to know about their heritage. I, too, believe in Ramon. Latino parents should fight bilingual language programs that would cripple Ramon’s chances of success in the United States.

DAN CABRERA

Glendale