The nation’s best Spanish spellers from all over the nation flocked to Albuquerque over the weekend to compete in the national Spanish Spelling Bee. New Mexico has dominated the national competition every year since it began. But that is no coincidence, while the national event has only been going for 5 years the Gadsden Independent School District has been holding Spanish spelling bees for more than two decades.
Santa Teresa Middle School 8th grader Andres Arreola won this years competition, defending his 2014 title.
“I feel so good winning! It is something that you wish and wish for and then you know you got it. It feels so good!” Arreola says “It was like a magical moment”.
It’s the fourth year in a row a student from the Gadsden Independent School District has won.
The national Spanish spelling bee actually got its start in Gadsden as a district wide competition. It then became the model for the New Mexico Association of Bilingual Education state competition, an organization David Briseño was working with at the time.
“I asked the question, why is there not a national event for that we can send our winners to so they can continue to compete” Briseño says.
This was fifth annual national Spanish Spelling Bee at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
Briseño says stronger Spanish language in education has been long over due for sometime but says it has come a long way since he was in school during the 1970’s.
Briseno’s says though both his parents were native Spanish speakers he only spoke English in school and learned Spanish later in life.
“My parents went through that era where you were punished in school for speaking Spanish so they wanted to make sure that we weren’t being punished” Briseño says.
Punishments like being paddled or having their mouths washed out with soap.
Briseno says these days there are more English as a second language and bilingual programs in schools. But those old attitudes are still influencing the education choices parents are making for their kids.
“It (Spanish) is actually in our country sometimes looked upon as a second class language. Events like ours actually elevate the status of the language among the students that are participating in it. They begin to see the importance.” Briseño says.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZSx8CiiAsA&feature=youtu.be
Briseno says the Spanish bee celebrates bilingualism and encourages native Spanish speakers like Andreas Arreola who says he had a lot of support from friends at home in Santa Teresa.
“They were actually impressed. They were like you are going to the spelling bee, oh my god, good luck”. Arreola says.
But it is not just native Spanish speakers like Arreola competing in the national spelling bee about half of the competitors are learning Spanish as a second language coming from as far away as Virginia, Massachusetts and Florida.
“People say to me well those Mexican kids ought to be doing pretty well in that because they speak Spanish. I said that is not how it goes, by the way it is not all Mexican kids.”
“This is a very diverse group of kids that come together throughout the country participating in the national spelling bee. If you take a picture of all the kids that are competing you would eat your words’ Briseño says.
A 2013 Michigan State University study in Texas showed native English speakers enrolled in bilingual education perform much better on math and reading tests than students at schools without those programs.
New Mexico standardized test data indicates that trend runs true through much of the state’s schools with bilingual programs.
But Briseño says if the National Spanish Spelling Bee is going to convince more American parents of the benefits of Spanish and bilingual education it has got a lot of catching up to do with the English Spelling Bee.
Especially in terms of exposure and financial sponsors willing to pay for competitors’ airfares and hotel accommodation.
“I get a sense of loss because there is another student that could have been here but wasn’t because of money’ Briseño says.
Though this year’s Spanish spelling bee saw students from more states than ever before, the 28 competitors only came from eight states. Briseño says next year the national Spanish spelling bee will relocate from Albuquerque to San Antonio, Texas, to expand its reach .
“This thing needs to grow I would love to see a network of sponsors nationally. I want to see representation from all 50 states I would like to see that representation of sponsors and networks that there are sources of pay for our students that want to come and participate so parents don’t have to take the brunt of having to pay for the airfare the hotel costs.” Briseño says.
Two-time champion Andreas Arreola, will be going into the ninth grade next year and won’t be eligible to compete but he’s rooting for another Gadsden champ.
“I think the kids should get in this because you meet new people, you feel good, you travel and you can win $500.00” Arreola says
Briseño and others might argue everyone wins with an increased appreciation for learning a second language.
