Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Saturday, March 29, 2008
Sparta community center helps new immigrants integrate
SPARTA, Wis. — Hispanic immigrants have a new place of their own in Sparta.
On Thursday afternoon, Teresa Woodworth was one of several people who came to practice their English.
Woodworth, who is originally from Mexico and moved nine years ago to Black River Falls, Wis., will take the U.S. citizenship test April 9. The first time she went to take the test in Bloomington, Minn., she was turned away.
“My English was no good,” she said.
Woodworth, who works at Northern Engraving in Sparta, has been studying English for about 10 months.
Since November, she has come to Lugar de Reunion, which is Spanish for Meeting Place, twice a week to practice her new language and her knowledge of U.S. government.
Although most who visit the community center in a new strip mall aren’t to the point of applying for citizenship, Lugar de Reunion offers those such as Woodworth a place with access to computers and the Internet and to people who can help them learn crucial skills for integrating into the Anglo world.
Things such as how to apply for a job, how to set up appointments, and most importantly how to speak English.
“It’s aimed at Hispanic newcomers,” said Lawrence Maravilla, who was hired last month as the center’s first director. “To help them understand the Anglo community and their expectations.”
A $196,000 grant from the Jessie Ball Dupont Foundation will fund the center for three years, said the Rev. Leigh Waggoner, vicar of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Sparta and the center’s founder.
Maravilla knows firsthand the importance of learning English. Now 42, he immigrated in 1988 to Miami, where his mother started a restaurant serving their native Nicaraguan food. Maravilla said he took night classes for five years to learn English.
He eventually went to college and now works in retail. He moved to Sparta in February for a job managing cashiers at the commissary on Fort McCoy.
Maravilla learned of the part-time director position at Lugar from his wife, Ivania, who came from Nicaragua three years ago and started visiting the community center for English lessons.
Ivania is now the leading volunteer at the center.
It’s not clear how many Hispanic residents there are in the Sparta area. According to the most recent U.S. Census data, there were 158 people of Hispanic origin there in 1999. But there were 209 living in the nearby town of Norwalk, where there is a meat packing plant.
Whatever the number today, it’s “sizeable enough to support all this,” said Waggoner, who began offering a Spanish language Mass two years ago.
Waggoner traces the beginnings of the community center to 2005, when she was introduced to a man who was excited to meet a Spanish speaker and was eager to learn English.
When he came for a lesson, he brought along a friend, Waggoner said. It grew from there, and in November moved to the new space.
The center serves an average of six to eight people a day, Maravilla said.
Clients can get donated clothing, and classes in sewing and parenting. There are plans for a program to improve relations between immigrants and landlords.
The challenge is finding enough volunteers to tutor them in English.
On Thursday, Emily Hawk, a social work student from Viterbo University, quizzed Teresa Woodworth from the citizenship test guide.
What year was the Constitution written? What is the most important right granted to U.S. citizens? How many voting members are in the House of Representatives?
Later, Hawk read a series of sentences, which Woodworth wrote in her spiral notebook.
Today is a sunny day. They came to live in the United States. I go to work every day. I want to be a U.S. citizen.
“Yes,” she said after writing the last one. “This is me.”
Chris Hubbuch can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or at chris.hubbuch@lee.net.
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