Information for:
Spotlight On Ulysses Ramirez, Government & International Politics major, ‘07
Opening Doors Through Community Literacy Program for Immigrants
How can an immigrant who does not know how to either read or write in his/her native tongue be able to learn English?
During his senior year, alumnus Ulysses Ramirez jumped at the opportunity to intern for a Spanish literacy education service project in the community. The project teams faculty and students of Spanish at Mason with Tenants and Workers United (TWU), a worker's rights and social justice organization in Northern Virginia. Together, they offer a free Spanish literacy and popular education course in the Culmore, Virginia (Bailey's Crossroads) community. The course is free and open to women and men who are immigrants from Latin America seeking to develop literacy in their home language of Spanish. These individuals have not had very much formal education, if any, in their home countries.
The course was launched as a collaborative effort between TWU Executive Director Jon Liss and Mason Spanish professor Lisa Rabin, who received special support and consultation from her colleagues Ricardo Vivancos-Pérez and Jennifer Leeman.
Reframing traditional literacy programs, the main question guiding Ramirez through his internship work was simple, “How can an immigrant who does not know how to either read or write in his/hear native tongue be able to learn English?” Ramirez worked with Rabin and a team of other volunteers to develop a curriculum that advances the capabilities of participants to learn English and American cultural conventions by first establishing greater competence in Spanish and Latin American language, history, and culture.
Few literacy programs in the United States have combined Spanish literacy and popular education lessons for discrete Latino populations. The Culmore course is set squarely within the critical pedagogy of the Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, with the student at the center of the learning process and course content based upon understandings of power and ways to effect change. Students will eventually create a newsletter about their community and issues they face both locally and globally. Coordinate with theories of popular education that train students as literacy instructors, advanced students in the Culmore program are encouraged to become future teachers in the program.
Ramirez remained dedicated to building a better society as a teacher, community organizer, and social justice advocate, ultimately accepted a full-time position with TWU following graduation. He now works as a community organizer facilitating the literacy program’s coherence with TWU’s organizing goals. Some of the activities planned for the class are lectures from local and national worker’s rights advocates, attendance at local TWU organizing events, and participation in larger gatherings in the area on immigration reform.
By Brooke Braun
This spotlight first appeared on December 7, 2007.