Article February 18, 1980 Issue

Finding our real brotherhood

Jean Luce Lee

"I felt like a baby when I first went to a school where everyone spoke English. I was thinking others were talking about me and calling me names," explains Alejandro Acevedo, as he described the time when he was eleven and spoke only Spanish. His family had just immigrated to California from Mexico City. Being surrounded by teachers and students who didn't understand him was frightening, recalls Alejandro. But he didn't stay frightened or babylike!

When I talked with Alejandro and his family in their California home, it had been four years since they had left Mexico City and faced the strangeness of a new school and country. Alejandro's older sister, Julieta, his younger sisters, Claudia and Thelma, and José, his five-years-old brother, speak English well. They even translated our conversation for their parents.

"My teachers tell me I should go to college," says Alejandro, now in the tenth grade. How has he been able to learn English quickly and do so well in school? Julieta, only one year older, answers, "It's the spiritual point of view that has helped us so much. In Christian Science Sunday School we learn about the Bible and how to use it every day."

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