School district to help Mixtec indigenous kids in Santa Maria facing bullying, language barrier
Parents of indigenous backgrounds say their kids are facing bullying and a language barrier in Santa Maria. On Thursday, the Santa Maria Bonita School District held an event exclusively for those families – a first for SMBSD.
Francisco Lozano is a parent to two of the 1,800 Mixtec kids in the district. He says his community is at a disadvantage — most don’t know English or Spanish. They come from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, and most only speak the Mixtec dialect.
“It’s not that we don’t want to support our children, but we just really need to be better informed,” said Lozano.
The Pathways to Success event aimed to ensure parents like Lozano have the right resources. During a two-hour presentation in Mixtec, parents learned about the importance of college, high school A-G requirements, sources for college funding, and other education-related topics.
“So that they are very comfortable reaching out to the schools,” said Assistant Superintendent Mark Muller. “And learning what we have to offer and how we can work together to help their children be successful.”
But Mixtec is not a written language and qualified translators are hard to come by.
Communication between parents and educators is not the only concern.
“The kids are only learning how to speak English,” said Elaria Sanchez, a Mixtec interpreter and teacher aid at SMBSD. “And now the parents are really worried about not being able to communicate with their own children, because they don’t want to speak in Mixtec, or in Spanish.”
Parents and teachers say some kids refuse to speak their native language because they’re made fun of.
“A lot of our kids are embarrassed to speak their language. They’re bullied because of the color of their skin, and the way they speak,” Lozano explained.
He thinks they should embrace their culture.
“To speak another language is power.”
Ten percent of students at SMBSD are Mixtec. The families hope the district will continue putting on more events like Thursday’s Pathway to Success.
