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Community Corner

Meet Lucia Gabriela, a Mother Raising a Bilingual Child in Rocky Point

This busy mom has made teaching her daughter about her heritage a priority.

Originally from Quito, Ecuador, Lucia Gabriela has lived in Rocky Point for the last five years with her husband and daughter.  She is a licensed New York State Hairdresser and prides herself on spreading beauty and health to her clients. 

Gabriela, also a Holistic Health Coach, trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. She is the founder and organizer of Latin and Spanish Moms, a group on Meetup.  She has also, with the help of group members, launched a website titled Kids Go Bilingual.   Kids Go Bilingual is a site dedicated to aiding parent's raising bilingual children.  The site provides educational resources, as well as personal blog entries from parent's raising bilingual children on Long Island.

Gabriela recently sat down with the Miller Place-Rocky Point Patch to help us understand more about the struggles and challenges she faces daily raising her daughter bilingual in our community. 

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Can you tell us why Latin and Spanish Moms on Meetup was created?

I saw the need because when I was in other mom groups-even though all the moms were wonderful- I felt the need to keep up with my Latin culture.  I saw that there were a few Spanish moms but coming to America is a little rough, especially Long Island.  If you were from Queens they have a little more of a Latin population and its seems easier, not as spread out.  For some reason we think that Long Island has a large Spanish population and we may have, but here we work a lot and we don’t spend time looking for Mommy and Me and groups. 

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You don’t see Mommy and Me in Spanish... it's very hard, so I created the Latin and Spanish Moms group for a few of the moms I saw in the community.  In the beginning I got such great support from some of the moms and little by little the group has become smaller and closer and its more Spanish moms now.

I wanted them to learn and understand our culture and I feel like people think they know us but they really don’t know us, maybe with other cultures too this is true. We aren’t another Mom group, we want to teach the kids the culture and to embrace it.  It is about what I want for my daughter, her environment.

How many members are currently in the group?

We have 15 active members now and I know every single member.

What are some of the events the group does?

Tuesday's we meet in the community at the . We get together and we read Spanish books, we go over the colors, shapes and animals. The   has been great, just awesome. They are also sharing it in the community. I want it to be more like a book store story time for the Spanish community. I was surprised they didn’t have a Spanish story time anywhere for kids in the community. I think by summer I would like to get into another community and do a story time as well, where one of the other members live.

How did Kids Go Bilingual come about?

Kids Go Bilingual was so we can record some of our activities on a website, and it's me and other group members that will post on the site.

The website,  it's going to be a year now, and as much as I can I try to post, however I want to express myself at the time, I will write.

Having the group and having the website is very important just to express myself out there and the challenges and that’s why a lot of parents give up, there are times I think I want to give up but I can’t.

What are some of the challenges you face raising your daughter bilingual?

Challenges, we have a lot, finding Spanish material is a big one. Friday mornings, we in the group do a Pre K school, and I found one book at Barnes & Noble and the rest online.  Finding material is very hard even online, I search but it's so hard to get them. It's so limited in what you can buy and it’s a big challenge to find materials. Spanish learning materials for children, there isn’t enough material out there.

Another challenge is that we are living in a community that is so spread out, and the Spanish community is so spread out here on Long Island. The kids are more exposed to it in other areas. So not just me but other parents, the kids don’t want to speak the language, they understand it 100 percent but they don’t feel they can speak it. It’s a challenge as they grow up.

Do you speak Spanish only in your home with your daughter?

At home I speak about 80% to my daughter in Spanish, but my husband doesn’t speak Spanish so sometimes less and that is another challenge. It's hard, she is processing two languages at one time.  English she will learn in school, and if you don’t speak it you lose it.

That is another big thing, about being Latin in America. Legally here or not you get looked at the same way, judged the same way. Another challenge is raising your child to be proud of being a child of an immigrant without them being stamped across their forehead "my parent was an immigrant." How do you take that emotional stress away, to make sure they grow happy? How do you lift that? It is a big weight to carry.

I go to the super market with her (daughter) and I speak to her in Spanish and people look at me. It doesn’t matter if I’m legal or not. If my paper work is in order or not. I’m still getting looked at and judged.

What are your goals, for your daughter?

I want her to be proud of her heritage and where she’s coming from. To be able to be -when she grows up- to know about her background to cook Spanish food, and have knowledge of what is out there. Not just Spanish cultures but other cultures, and have an understanding and respect everyone. Even me when I came to America it was easy to judge with out putting yourself in their situation. It was easy for me to say the parents were lazy for the kids in the United States not speaking Spanish. They weren’t lazy they just gave up, its hard, the challenges. It breaks my heart that she (daughter) doesn’t want to speak Spanish to me sometimes.   But I can't quit, it's her future.

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