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Community leaders and parents read books to students and share their own stories
By Juliann Morris
September 23, 2022 – Hispanic community leaders and parents visited Hawthorne Elementary School this week to read with students and share their diverse backgrounds in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Students at Hawthorne – which offers a Spanish Immersion program – interacted with role models who “come in all shades and colors,” just like them, said Bloom-Hawthorne Family Resources Coordinator Elvira Paguada-Gutierrez.
Paguada-Gutierrez, the bilingual daughter of Honduran immigrants, held back tears as she described growing up in California around few people who shared her background.
“I didn’t grow up with people who look like me,” she said. “So it’s very exciting to be here and to be able to bring that to kiddos.”
Among the volunteers at Tuesday’s event were community representatives from the University of Louisville, the city of Louisville, a local magazine publisher, Hawthorne parents, and more.
Volunteers gathered in the school’s library and introduced themselves, many noting how special the Louisville Hispanic community has been in their personal journeys. They then spread out to classrooms, reading stories written in Spanish or by Hispanic/Latinx authors and illustrators. Many talked with students about the value of being bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate.
Some volunteers also prepared presentations on their native countries, like Cuban American Luis David Fuentes, publisher of the Hispanic magazine El Kentubano.
“It was an honor to be here just chatting my culture to the kids,” Fuentes said. “The fact that we have a month for celebrating our achievements is a blessing.”
Hawthorne is a good representation of Hispanic growth in Louisville, Fuentes said.
“I came here, as I said, 20 years ago, and it’s completely different, you know, at that time,” he said. “Now you can see around how many Mexican or Cuban flags are everywhere, how many Cuban restaurants, how many Hispanic grocery stores.”
As part of Hawthorne’s Spanish Immersion approach, kindergarten to fifth-grade students spend half of their instructional day immersed in Spanish (math, science, and Spanish literacy) and half of their instructional day immersed in English (English language arts and social studies). At the end of fifth grade, students are able to take the ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) test to earn high school credit.
For the 2023-24 school year, Hawthorne will switch from offering a magnet program to a whole-school Spanish Immersion magnet. The shift from a program to a whole-school magnet will allow students from anywhere in the district to apply and receive JCPS bus transportation.
About half of Hawthorne’s staff are of Hispanic/Latinx descent, Paguada-Gutierrez said, which helps improve communication among school staff and Hispanic parents and foster a stronger sense of community.
Paguada-Gutierrez said she sends her own child to Hawthorne for its unique bilingual, bicultural, biliterate environment that helps set students up for success.
“It was really important for my own kiddo to come to this school so she could be exposed to our native tongue and not lose that,” she said. “I’m a prime example of what being bilingual can bring to you.”