Saturday, June 21, 2008
On the way home from confession at St. John’s Catholic Church, Val Romero remembers buying five cent ice cream next to the Varsity Theater. He also remembers attending New York Grade School in Lawrence, where he learned to speak English.
As a child, Romero, born in 1927, was one of the first Mexican-Americans to live in Lawrence. He said his parents, Juan and Sevillana, only spoke Spanish at home.
“At New York Elementary School we had colored children, Italian families,” Romero said. “I didn’t know I was Mexican until someone told me.”
Cowboys and cowgirls preform at St. John's Mexican Fiesta on Friday evening. Money raised at the event supports Spanish lessons for elementary students and scholarships for high school seniors of Mexican descent.
Pictures of Romero and his family will be part of a display about Mexican heritage in Lawrence, at St. John’s Mexican Fiesta this Saturday. The fiesta helps fund Spanish classes St. John Catholic School.
Since Romero’s time, language trends have changed. St. John Catholic School now promotes Spanish as part of its grade school curriculum.
“The school relies on the fiesta to support Spanish classes as part of the curriculum, not as a club,” said Jane Ellen Liebert, director of development at St. John Catholic School. “It diversifies the children’s education and makes them a better writers and spellers.”
The administration of St John Catholic School pushed to transform the Spanish club into a class. Funds from the Fiesta allowed them to hire a full-time teacher and purchase laptop computers to teach pre-schoolers.
Dolores Lemus-Kenney, fiesta committee head of decorations, said the fiesta’s profits last year were $60,000. She said they donated $40,000 to the school, part of which helped pay the teacher’s salary.
Fiesta profits also support $3,000 worth of scholarships for Mexican-American high school students who want to further their education.
“KU has given us good leads to more scholarships for our recipients,” said Rutha Romero, former scholarship committee chair.
The fiesta committee will honor this year’s scholarship winners at the Fiesta, with large, fake checks.
“The Spanish classes and scholarship are very representative of this church,” Liebert said. “We’re the only Catholic church in town that offers a Mass in Spanish. We’re very diverse with our ethnic background and celebrate that.”
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