For Yolima Otálora, teaching a language goes far beyond helping her students memorize new words and learn to form sentences.
Her mission remains the same, 25 years after founding a language academy in Phoenix: to use language as a tool to break down barriers and connect people with other cultures.
“Learning a language is very, very valuable, and learning Spanish, which is a language in such demand, that's valuable too,” said Otálora.
From the moment she arrived in the U.S. from Colombia, accompanied by her husband and her daughters, Otálora came face to face with a society enriched by a vast diversity in cultures and languages, which was just beginning to take steps toward inclusion. She quickly became aware of the needs of those populations, and particularly those of the Latino community — today the largest ethnic minority in the United States.
A visionary Latina who carried with her the linguistics studies that she acquired in Colombia, Otálora soon began to teach Spanish as a tool to respond to the needs of her community and foster diversity.
Shortly after arriving in Arizona, she began teaching Spanish in schools, community centers and universities. And although she had no plans to establish her own school at that time, she confessed that she was not completely comfortable with traditional teaching methods, which according to her are usually "mechanical" and "decontextualized".
“I wanted people to have the experience of developing affectively the acquisition of a new language, especially ours,” she said.
And that was the reason that led her to create Interlingua, a Spanish school on Seventh Street and Camelback Road that she likes to refer to as "a little piece of Latin America."
'How do you transmit beyond words?'
For Otálora, learning to speak Spanish is not just about "memorizing and repeating."
“Acquiring a language has to be a loving process. It is an affective process,” she said. "By approaching the language in this way, (students) gain elements for respect, for empathy."
And to achieve her goal, Otálora has sought to transmit the essence of Latin American culture through the activities that she offers at Interlingua, which range from reading sessions to immersion programs in Latin American countries.
But she doesn't just do this for students who come to her individually. She seeks to make this pedagogy available to city and state employees — especially law enforcement personnel.
One of the programs Interlingua offers is directed at city departments, such as firefighters, police officers, emergency call operators, and other institutions that respond to dangerous situations.
According to Otálora, it is very important to train them to identify emergency situations when they receive calls in Spanish because Arizona has a significant percentage of residents who only speak Spanish.
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2017 about 30% of the entire Hispanic population in the United States was not proficient in English. But the problem goes beyond these communities, Otálora explained.
When an officer finds themselves in a dangerous situation, "if a police officer knows how to speak Spanish, they can save their own life and that of other people," she said.
For example, Otálora recounted an experience in which emergency line operators received a call in Spanish from a woman requesting assistance for a heart attack. The operators sent the police instead of the paramedics, Otálora said, because they misunderstood what she meant by attack.
"It can be a life or death situation," she said.
Verónica Villanueva, who has been working with Otálora since the start of Interlingua, also highlighted the importance of this work with city personnel.
"In all services, such as health or mental health, people who do not speak English as their first language have many disadvantages," said Villanueva. "It is very important that the personnel who help the community know how to communicate in Spanish."
For Otálora, the need to know Spanish in these situations is essential, but its importance is not only limited to emergencies. According to her, teaching Spanish to security departments can also help the state to embrace diversity more.
She said that facilitating communication between the Spanish-speaking community and the authorities can help build trust, which would contribute to these populations turning to the corresponding personnel when necessary.
Not only this but by learning Spanish, said Otálora, state institutions approach a language and culture that were previously neglected, helping to break down barriers of fear that can lead to discriminatory acts.
"The unknown causes fear," Yolima said. "For this reason, coexistence with communities through language is very important."
'Perfectly bilingual': Otálora's utopia
Through teaching Spanish, Otálora also aims to teach students to appreciate and embrace it as part of the cultural diversity that the United States has, and especially in Arizona, where more than a third of the population speaks Spanish.
“We all have a utopia. My idea, for example, is that a state like Arizona, a city like Phoenix, could be perfectly bilingual,” she said.
And that is why Otálora believes that her work is not only important to those foreign to Latino culture, but also with the different members of those Latino communities that are represented at Interlingua.
Otálora, on her behalf, has participated in anti-discrimination causes and in support of inclusion. And when she can, she said, she includes Interlingua in her activism and works as an institution to support social justice and the defense of the rights of the Latino population.
Otálora has arranged for the Colombian consul general to come to Phoenix and host conferences and meetings in the Interlingua facilities. The closest headquarters of the Colombian Consulate is in Los Angeles, so Otálora's work has made it easier for Colombians in Arizona to access the services of the consulate.
Otálora has also offered employment to Latinos of all walks of life, from political refugees to migrants who have suffered persecution.
Villanueva has seen the work Otálora has done — how her strategy of sharing culture through art and literature has helped students of all ages to express themselves fluently in Spanish.
“It is not just learning the language and how to say things, but also learning about the culture, learning to enjoy,” said Villanueva. "It is amazing to see that process."
These people have become not only Spanish teachers but also friends of Otálora, whom she fondly remembers. Each one, she said, has contributed one more piece to the great puzzle that makes up the different cultures of Latin America.
That is why Otálora's goal is to build in Arizona a political vehicle aimed at welcoming Spanish as an instrument for progress toward democracy and inclusion.
"The way we think about the world becomes language," she said. "Therefore, to pretend that there is only one way of seeing the world, it seems to me that it impoverishes life."
Reach breaking news reporter Laura Daniella Sepulveda at lsepulveda@lavozarizona.com or on Twitter @lauradNews.
This story is part of the Faces of Arizona series. Have feedback or ideas on who we should cover? Send them to editor Kaila White at kaila.white@arizonarepublic.com.
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