History Class Takes to the Road : Immigrants’ Tour to Give First-Hand Look at Nation

Joining the thousands of late-summer travelers taking to the road this week is a busload of Los Angeles immigrants who are being given a rare chance to see, first-hand, a bit of the American experience they have only read about.

A group of 45 mostly Latino immigrants selected from amnesty education classes conducted at Los Angeles schools embarked Thursday on a 10-day cross-country tour that will take them past the Grand Canyon, over the Rocky Mountains, to Mark Twain’s home town and, finally, to the White House.

“My job when I come back will be to tell the others what I’ve seen,” said Oscar Alarcon, 46, a North Hollywood janitor who was born in Guatemala and is now seeking U.S. citizenship. “This a chance; a dream that I never expected.”

The trip, thought up and organized by adult education teachers at Fairfax High School, is being paid for with corporate donations, as well as contributions by teachers and administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s amnesty education program. Residents eligible to apply for citizenship under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 are required to complete the amnesty classes in U.S. history, government and citizenship.

Take Time Off

The traveling students, who range in age from 22 to 68, have taken time off from work and away from families to embark on the first of what organizers hope will be an ongoing travel program.

“The idea came from teachers who had highly motivated students (and) felt they had to offer more than just classroom teaching,” said Dan Hutchinson, assistant principal at Fairfax and coordinator of the trip, which is being called “US in a Bus.”

“The amnesty law shifted these people from being illegal to suddenly being candidates for citizenship,” Hutchinson said. “That opportunity inspired a lot of people.”

Melida Ramirez, formerly of El Salvador, said the new immigration law forced her to enroll in school and, after more than 10 years in the United States, to learn English.

The 36-year-old mother of two said she now hopes to earn a high school diploma. Ramirez said her selection by teachers to go on the trip is another unexpected blessing that she has received since arriving in the United States in 1976.

“You can become a special person in this country, even if you don’t speak English so well or have nice clothes,” said Ramirez, a downtown Los Angeles resident who works as a housekeeper. “The first thing I learned from my teacher in the class was that everyone has rights here and later I learned that everybody has a chance to get ahead.”

Ramirez said that she is especially interested in seeing Springfield, Ill., where Abraham Lincoln practiced law.

“Freeing the slaves, that was something,” she said.

Each student has researched and prepared a lesson for the others on some part of the trip.

Francisco Becerra, 34, is the group’s expert on Mark Twain. Practicing his lecture, Becerra recounts, for example, that Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens and that he was born the day Halley’s Comet appeared in 1835 and died the day after the famous comet’s reappearance in 1910.

Four Days in Capital

In the nation’s Capital--where the group will spend four days before returning to Los Angeles by airplane--Becerra said he hopes to meet a congressman, or senator.

“I want to tell them that five years is too long to wait for citizenship,” he explained.

The trip east has a second purpose besides education of the students, amnesty teacher Russell Bekins said.

“It’s also an expedition through parts of America that are not used to seeing immigrants,” said Bekins, one of five teachers accompanying the students. “It’s a chance to show that these people are just as sturdy and resourceful as the immigrants who founded this country.”