Markeshia Ricks Photo
Students Sofia Almeida, Shanna Cordova watch a video with Maria Marin.
Nine-year-old Sofia Almeida often misses Ecuador, where she was born, a lot. On Tuesday she cured a little of her occasional homesickness by going “home” for a few hours.
Truman School students from Ecuador and Peru file into the Consulate General of Ecuador Tuesday.
Sofia, along with 16 other TrumanSchool fourth through eighth-grade students from Ecuador and Peru, got a chance to return not by boarding a a plane, but by boarding a yellow school bus and heading to the Ecuadorian consulate in downtown New Haven.
The students filed into the consulate offices at 1 Church St. Tuesday morning with Sofia out front serving as a proud flag bearer.
The idea to take a visit to the consulate, which opened in New Haven in 2008, was the brainchild of Truman ESL teacher Mary Lou DiPaola, who said she’s seen more students arriving specifically from Ecuador. The students who are from Peru also were included in the trip given the close proximity of their country.
Visiting the Mitad del Mundo
During the visit Consul General Raúl Erazo Velarde took over teaching duties, explaining how the office helps Ecuadorians in New England deal with matters that impact their ability to travel home and why a small-scale replica of the Mitad del Mundo, or Middle of the World, monument is in the lobby of the consulate.
When a student asked if the real Mitad del Mundo was the same size in Ecuador, Velarde said definitely not. “There, this is big,” he said, gesturing with his hand. “You can go inside. It’s very amazing.”
Velarde explains the Ecuadorian flag.
Eleven year-old Shanna Cordova, who was born in the United States to parents who are from Peru, said she is excited to visit Ecuador and Peru one day.
“I want to go to Peru and other countries,” she said.
Students listen as Velarde explains the many functions of the office
Maria Marin, mom of Sofia Almeida, said she had spent about two weeks leading up to the trip to the consulate talking to Sofia about how the consulate is a little bit of their home country in the place where they live now. They hail from Cuenca, which is the capital of Ecuadorian province Azuay, and get to visit about three times a year.
“She likes it here, but she misses Ecuador a lot,” Marin said of her daughter.
Marin said until the field trip to the consulate it had never occurred to her to bring Sofia to the office as another way to help her stay close to her roots and to feel a bit of home away from home.
“We should do this for them,” she said of visiting the consulate regularly. “I don’t think we realized the positive psychological impact that it could have.”
Velarde told all the students that they are welcome back always. He encouraged them to bring their parents for an upcoming workshop about their labor and civil rights.
“This consulate is for the whole community,” he said. “Everybody can come here. The door is open.”