From Morocco to Mexico: Learning to teach how to read with transcultural eyes

In the past thirteen years, I have been learning from bicultural students. In Barcelona, students from Morocco taught me that our lives have a literary rhythm, a rhythm that guides our reading experiences. Their gestures, energy, and musicality helped me to understand that when the written text is presented as a mere recollection of letters and words, we are losing its fundamental essence: communication of experiences. Once I learned how to listen to the texts, my planning became enriched with their views, and gained perceptions in a cultural environment that despite its geographical closeness was located within an infinite distance from my cultural framework. I am fortunate that they installed a new pair of lenses on my monochromatic eyes.

With this new pair of glasses, I crossed the ocean without knowing what was waiting for me beyond the fashionable streets I had watched on TV. Soon, I learned that the inner-city of Los Angeles like the suburbs in Barcelona were the home of gente(people) who read the world with bicultural eyes. Perhaps, this biculturalism was involuntary however they made an excellent use of it by creating a vivid, colorful mosaic of experiences that illustrate the process of reading. Yet, Latino families in South Los Angeles had a quiet approach to learning. Their subtle voices were impregnated with a different rhythm. Where Moroccan students displayed explicit dynamism, Latino students showed implicit joy for learning. The latter wanted to be empowered, the first were already taking the stand. Teaching and learning in South Los Angeles, book-ended my primary educational career with a different tempo. It was time to generate a project that would allow students, and parents to learn by utilizing their music, culture, language, and heritage as assets of the learning process. Thus, I decided to build a space for dialogue, exchange, and critical thinking. At this point, I needed an object that would ‘turn on’ this idea. Reading the world around me, I discover the obvious: a book. With this cultural artifact in my hand, I asked parents and students, “Do you want to read with me?” A positive grin ignited everything. Since then wherever I go, I always carry a book with me; assured that letters and words are the password I need in to understand the community. NOW, CALEXICO. A new learning experience is before of me.

Why Reading Together?

This project aims to regain the joy for reading within the community. Not too long ago, family members used to spend time reading together. We have lost this priceless experience on the hands of mass media. It is time to bring the magical experience defined by Freire & Macedo (1987, p. 32) as “I learned to read and write on the ground of the backyard of my house, in the shade of the mango trees… The earth was my blackboard, the sticks my chalk” back where it was born, the household.

When we read together, we are creating a socio-emotional bond among the participants which, surpasses the written text. One of our main goals is to foster communication in the household, thus, we utilize Dialogic Reading. This model promotes critical inquiry. Parents and students are constantly generating questions and answers, which enriches the reading experience by infusing it with dynamic exchanges of knowledge. We want to hear your opinions. Log in read and write with us!