Cristina Costantini Photo
With hands over their hearts, future pupils of a new Ecuadorian cultural school stood in silence to the Star-Spangled Banner, and then again to the Ecuadorian National Anthem. The elders sang along proudly to the recording of “Salve, Oh Patria.” The children didn’t know the words.
The recitations kicked off an event Saturday marking a milestone in the development of New Haven’s growing Ecuadorian community. They also reflected the twin challenge the community elders have taken on: helping their children assimilate to American society while also learning about the land from which they hailed.
Thirty members of the community gathered in a backyard on Cedar Hill Avenue to celebrate the inauguration of La Escuela Comunitaria de Integración y Desarollo (The Community School of Integration and Development). The after-school program, to be housed on Poplar Street in Fair Haven, will teach Spanish, culture, and history to children of Ecuadorian descent. The community raised all the money for the school; no government money was granted for it.
While the adults conversed in Spanish under a shaded tent, the children played soccer and chased a chicken on the cement patio, speaking only in English to one another. Parents fear that because their children spend all day in school, speaking English, learning American history and American culture,that they may be losing their connection to their cultural roots.
Addressing the crowd, Jennifer Wiesner, a leader in the Ecuadorian community in New Haven, likened children without knowledge of their cultural identities to “little plants without roots to grow.”.
“Some don’t even know the colors of the Ecuadorian flag”, said community leader Dixon Jimenez. Jimenez said the program can “give children of Ecuadorian decent a more ample context of their identity” through Spanish lessons and Ecuadorian social, political, economic studies.
Walter Sinche, executive director of New York-based Alianza Ecuatoriana Internacional.
Leaders of the project approached local, state, and federal sources for funding, but have found that ultimately the school will be sustained by the “pueblo unido hispano” or by the “united Hispanic peoples.”
“In our times, we must show that change must come from within the community. The changes must come from the bottom up. If bureaucratic means, local authorities, and elected officials don’t work, its our responsibility to do it ourselves,” said Jimenez.
Starting Monday, children aged 5 to 14 will be taught by “a team of qualified professional instructors” in everything from Ecuadorian geography, to “Ecuadorian civic education”. By passing down “the cultural values of Ecuador”, project leaders hope to arm students with “tools with which to compare in real and practical ways, the customs and traditions of American and Ecuadorian societies.”
After the national anthems had been played on Saturday, a woman exclaimed to the crowd “Que vive el Ecuador! Tambien que vive los Estados Unidos!” The audience echoed her cry.
Translation: “Long live Ecuador. Long live the United States as well!”