LCoM Literacy Blog- October 30, 2014

 THE LITERACY CENTER OF MILFORD

  SHARE ON FACEBOOK   SHARE ON TWITTER   SHARE ON LINKEDIN   SHARE ON GOOGLE+

{UNSUBSCRIBE}SAFELY UNSUBSCRIBE{/UNSUBSCRIBE}

Our Student Stories

My Life
My name is Esperanza Castillo, I am the last of six siblings Mari, Marco, Yanina, Edison, Mireya and me. I was born in Ecuador in a town called Puerto Quito, it is the northwest of the Province of Pichincha, this is where I went to school. After I finished, I went to live with my older sister to study College and University where I graduated with a Commercial Engineer in Quito. In between I worked in a supermarket as a cashier and in a pawn shop.  While in university I worked in the Bank Solidario. At this time I met Jose, got engaged had two daughters Leahn and Linnette which are now 5 and 3 years old. I then returned to live in my hometown at my in-laws while Jose worked in this country and hoped to get citizenship.  The moment came in the year 2012 when, after a long wait we were able to travel to the United States and be able to finally live together.
Since August 2012 we live in this country, giving thanks to God because we are very happy. It gave me the opportunity to see my brother Marco who has been here 19 years without being able to return to my country. In May we received a visit from my sister Mireya who for 13 years lived in Zaragoza, Spain. She was here three weeks and we could share time with my family and my brother Marco. After that she traveled to Ecuador to visit my mother and my brothers.
Now I’m happier because my mom came in July for the first time to this country to visit, she is staying for two months, we plan to visit many places. I hope the time goes by slow because my mom has to go back in two months and I will be sad.

Name: Esperanza Castillo
Country: Ecuador
Tutor: Valerie Yergeau

Honoring our Own and our
Family’s Histories
By Elizabeth Clare
When I was a kid, my grandmother was my caretaker, as my father had been killed in World War II, and my mom was off at work and came home late and tired. Many rainy afternoons, my grandmother told stories of her coming to America, the poverty, the indignities of traveling in steerage, the bedbugs and lice, the trials and fears at Ellis Island; the hard jobs she had as a maid when she arrived in New York City at age 14.

Once she got started, she had to tell the story all the way through, so I heard it many, many times. And as a kid, it was pretty boring to hear the same thing over and over and over…until I had enough maturity to make the connection: my grandmother is telling us our family history. She’s the only one who knows this part of it. This is first-hand, not a dry text book with abstract facts. She’s the real thing. She was a hero!

When this dawned on me, I realized what a treasure my grandmother’s stories were. I got out a tape recorder, put in a tape, and began to listen, really to the story, to ask questions for details, to appreciate the trauma she endured. Naturally, she was pleased, and more than pleased to be recognized not as a repetitious old lady, but as a fountain of history. Our relationship developed new bonds, and there were often tears of appreciation in her eyes to have someone listening carefully, caring about the stories she had told so often to deaf ears, her gift just disappearing in the wind with no one really listening.

(This was long before the days of computers, or even copy machines.) I typed up her stories, arranged them in sequence, made carbon copies (does anyone remember carbon copies?) for each of her three sisters. I mailed this history off to her sisters, all in their 80’s now. They were scattered around the country from New Jersey and New York City to Michigan. They got excited! They made corrections, and they called and wrote to tell of their own stories of immigration and early days in the United States.

Years later, when my own sons were off at college, I started to create a novel from my grandmother’s stories. I spent day after day in the library researching for accurate data from 1904, and thus the “historical novel,” Kristina, 1904, the Greenhorn Girl was born.

My grandmother was in a nursing home, but still with all her good senses at age 95. She read the manuscript and wept. “How did you know what we were saying?” she asked. “Because you told me, remember?” I answered. She thought it was magic.

I put the novel on a back burner for another 20 years until I became a publisher and knew that I had a market for it…for example, today’s immigrants who also go through traumas on their way to the United States. Kristina’s stories have proven cathartic for newcomers in ESL classes. It opens up the ability to talk about the anguish of leaving home, the difficulties of travel, and the surprises, delights, and disillusionments after arriving.

All of which is the background for May’s Page Six article: Your Family, Write About It.

Our students may not yet have a conception of themselves as heroes, or their parents as heroes in the grand life-changing experience of leaving home and moving to another country. The decisions and changes and experiences they’ve had are so very worth documenting for their own children and grandchildren.

With today’s ease of getting things written, and copies made and sent via email or posted, our students’ stories should not be lost. Kids are generally not focused too much on ancestry stuff, many don’t listen when their grandparents are still alive. It seems we don’t get to wondering, or caring much, until we are in our 50’s, or so, and the ones who know the family stories are gone.

So it’s our privilege as teachers to awaken the historian in our students…take notes, the stories are treasures! The names and places will one day be forgotten if someone doesn’t write them down. Ancestry.com works well for American and Canadian roots, but the trails get vague when searching in South American, Asian, European or African files. Ancestry.com gives a free trial when a person signs up for their services. However, they will ask for a credit card, and start to bill you for $19.95 per month after the free trial, until you cancel them. It is better to get what one can, first hand.

Barnes & Noble Customers Give the Gift of Reading to Children in Need Through Annual Holiday Book Drive

Milford Barnes & Noble Chooses The Literacy Center of Milford As Local Non-Profit Recipient

Milford, CT- October 30, 2014 – Barnes & Noble Milford invites customers to give the gift of reading to children in need during the company’s annual Holiday Book Drive, taking place November 1, 2014, through January 1, 2015.  The Barnes & Noble Holiday Book Drive provides an opportunity for customers to donate books through locally designated non-profit organizations. Last year, Barnes & Noble customers and booksellers provided more than 1.5 million books to over 2,000 local charitable organizations that provide services to children across the country.

Holiday Book Drive recipients throughout the country include schools, libraries, literacy organizations, family social service agencies and homeless centers.  This year, the Milford Barnes & Noble, located at 1375 Boston Post Road, Milford, CT will be collecting books for The Literacy Center of Milford.

“The Holiday Book Drive is a favorite program of both booksellers and customers across the country,” says Sarah DiFrancesco, Vice President, Business Development for Barnes & Noble.  “Customers often purchase and donate a personal childhood favorite as a way to pass on a holiday tradition to a child in their local community.”   

Tami Jackson, executive director of The Literacy Center of Milford, said last year’s donation helped to support its Babies and Toddlers program as well as Books for Birthdays program. “We lost funding last year so we especially appreciated the books provided by Barnes & Noble Milford’s Holiday Book Drive,” Ms. Jackson said.

To find out how to participate in the Holiday Book Drive, contact Milford Barnes & Noble Business Development Manager Karen Dydzuhn at 203-301-0371.