Vanessa Sierra-Jurado

English 133-02

Dr. Jason Peters

25 January 2018

Personal Literacy Narrative

Growing up in a big family, my parents were never able to give me much individualized

attention as I was developing skills as a child. My parents worked hard to support themselves

and receive more opportunity. My parents were not fluent with English when I was born. My

community consisted of a majority of hispanic families like mine. My parents spoke to me in

Spanish; I spoke to my siblings in English and Spanish; and I learned to speak English at school

for my first nine years. I slowly learned about the larger world that existed.

In the first grade, my teacher would teach the class a few words of American Sign

Language everyday. Being bilingual, learning a third mode of communication could only

improve my chances of making connections with more people. It was not until I got to high

school where I began to write more heavily in Spanish. My first year of Spanish class was not as

successful as it could have been because our teacher left for most of the school year, leaving us

with substitute teachers who could not effectively teach us Spanish.

During my second year of Spanish class I began to write papers and make presentations

in Spanish. I learned the various conjugations that existed in the Spanish language, as well as

variations in the language across the world. I discovered that some Spanish words were native to

my parents’ home country of Mexico, and some were even more exclusive to their regions within

the nation, and they either had different or no meanings in other countries in Latin America. My
teacher was a Columbian middle-aged woman who was a passionate representative for the Latina

community.

The following year of high school, I had the same teacher for Spanish class. This year

was AP Spanish, meaning we had to be able to speak, read and write fluently for our exam held

in May. I believe the way she taught this class was very effective in getting me to become literate

with the Spanish language. At the beginning of the year, each student selected a Latin American

country that we would be researching throughout the school year. I chose to do my successive

projects on Chile, a country I had never even Googled before. I began to study various aspects of

Chile intensively. I studied its literature, customs and culture, history as well as its society while

doing several projects. While studying Chile’s culture, my teacher encouraged me to look up

Chile’s art and architecture, in which I fell in love with. She knew I was pursuing a future in art

because art classes were all I ever wanted to take in high school. Writing a research paper on

Chile’s art and architecture really allowed me to bond with a new culture and got me really

involved in an assignment.

When it was time to do my presentation, I was so excited because it was the first

academic presentation I enjoyed putting together. I had various presentation aids, including

videos and photographs of art pieces and buildings in Chile. I spoke easily, because I was more

than happy to share my knowledge with others. It was one of my most successful presentations,

and my teacher expressed a great appreciation for it. I thanked her for her advice with the project

and I felt connected to her culturally. With her guidance throughout the year I was able to

improve my skills with writing and speaking. She pushed me to read more difficult literatures to

expand my vocabulary as I matured as a student. With all of this help, I scored a 5 on that exam.
 She encouraged me to get involved with my own culture and represent my Hispanic

community. She was such a proud Colombian woman that she proudly expressed her culture

everyday through her unique style. She would wear beautiful Colombian dresses to school and

always promoted diversity. She hosted Hispanically cultured events that I began to take part of

after she helped me realize I had a lot of culture in my genetics. I continued to bond with her

through cultural music and food.

My teacher’s guidance completely altered my high school experience. I began to

represent my culture on a day to day basis, which opened me up to a new community of people

and allowed me to associate myself with my extended family more. Now, I continue to read,

write and verbally communicate with other people in both English and Spanish and have sworn

to never let go of my inherited culture. I am thankful for the skills I acquired from the lovely

woman.