Literacy Program Bridges Cultural Gap for Latinos

Virginia Rafelson, executive director of a literacy program that serves Eastside residents, is trying to teach Spanish-speaking immigrants basic language and writing skills so they can find jobs.

In the midst of this, she is also tackling a cultural gap between how Latinos raise children in their native countries and what they need to know to provide effective child care in the United States.

“Many of the people in the program are mothers and grandmothers from small towns where it is OK to spank a child,” Rafelson said. “Child abuse is so common in their culture.”

The ethic she tries to instill is: “You don’t spank a child. You try to understand them.”

In 1990, Rafelson started a program to teach immigrants, most of them from Mexico, to become child-care providers. The child-care classes are sponsored by her 9-year-old Canoga Park-based nonprofit group, Basic Adult Spanish Education.

The free six-month, six hour-per-week program operates at the East Los Angeles Skills Center in Lincoln Heights. The program includes classes in prenatal care, child CPR, first aid and nutrition.

The students also volunteer for 20 hours at a child- care center that has hired students for full-time jobs, Rafelson said.

“The program has been tremendously successful,” said John Villa, a coordinator at the Eastside center. “In our last graduating class in May, 18 of the 21 students went on to become nannies and teacher’s assistants at child care centers.”

Rafelson, former director of cultural affairs with the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, started the group in 1987 because she noticed that many of the Mexican and Central American immigrants who went to her for help were illiterate in their native language.

She formed the group with the mission to “educate poverty-level adult Hispanics in order for them to ultimately enter the job market at a dignified level.”

In addition to child-care programs, the group also offers courses in Spanish and English literacy and elder care.

The organization, which began from Rafelson’s West Hills home with a handful of volunteers, has grown to 48 paid instructors who have taught more than 5,000 students free courses at 16 centers in Los Angeles County.

The program is funded by the Job Training Partnership Act, a federally subsidized program, and donations from public and private groups.