Last summer I got a start on learning Spanish from my friend, teacher, and poet Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs. (The image for this post is her wonderful and recently published picture book.) Why did I want to learn Spanish? The story begins when I was three or four years old, learning in a Salt Lake City Montessori school called La Casa. I still remember my teachers. They were beautiful women. From then I learned that the world is safe and people are kind. These days, sadly, people wouldn’t be so kind to them. I hope, though, that they are still around somewhere, surrounded by loved ones. They have my gratitude. I learned some Spanish words, too.
Our family moved to Seattle and the Spanish dropped away. I learned un poco, a little bit, during an enrichment class in my first grade. (First grade was very boring, as I had already learned the material. Remember that I started learning when I was three or four.) In first grade, I learned how to say “The cat drinks milk.” El gato bebe leche. And that’s all I remember from that time.
In middle school, I had the choice to learn Spanish or French. Which was the right choice? My neighbors spoke French, so I chose that language. I loved learning French! However, I was too shy to ever speak it with my neighbors.
My aunt and cousins knew Spanish, but my family was estranged from them for reasons I didn’t truly understand at the time. I only knew any of my cousins when my family threw us together, which seemed generally out of my control. This was my loss. I grew up, got busy with my life, had kids, got breastfeeding support from La Leche League, gave my children piñatas to break – all those words and customs that have come into U.S. culture from the Spanish-speaking world.
What’s happening now at the border between the U.S. and Mexico, really between the U.S. and every other country in the world, is a misunderstanding of the nature of humanity. Our lives are inextricably woven together. No matter how many walls and guns there are, we are family.
To make a long story short, I’ve been wanting to learn Spanish for quite some time, and last summer, with lots of help from my teacher. I got started. I have a solid foundation, and now what I need to do is practice. Keep it up. Be a world citizen.
Estudio español.
Kristin Ann King 