Roughly 10 percent of families with children attending schools in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District speak Mixteco as their primary language.
That’s about 1,800 Santa Maria-Bonita School District students, according to Assistant Superintendent Mark Muller, who said the population of Mixteco-speaking students within the district has doubled in the last five years and more than quadrupled in the last 10.
Accessing services and information can be difficult for Mixteco-speaking students and their parents, Muller said, because the language isn’t written, and qualified interpreters are in short supply.
But with the help of various local organizations and several Mixteco interpreters, the Santa Maria-Bonita School District was able to host its first ever informational meeting conducted exclusively in Mixteco on May 31.
“We wanted to reach out specifically to them and have a session in their language that they could understand,” Muller told the Sun.
Dozens of families poured into the Veterans’ Memorial Community Center that evening, where pozole and fresh strawberries were being served. Various organizations—including Allan Hancock College, the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department, Healthy Start, and Fighting Back: Santa Maria Valley—had set up informational booths where interested parents could pick up flyers and ask questions about services and activities.
Muller said most booths had designated translators, and roughly 10 of the district’s employed Mixteco interpreters attended the event. The meeting, he said, was the fifth in a series of Pathway to Success meetings the Santa Maria-Bonita School District launched this school year.
“We were looking at a way to increase our student and parent engagement in education,” Muller said, adding that only 12 percent of Santa Maria adults have college degrees.
The overall goal, Muller said, is to inspire children and their families to change that number.
At the May 31 meeting, district officials presented information on the U.S. education system, course requirements, college and sources of college funding, and various available after-school activities.
Muller said district employees are already working to contact attendees for feedback. There are only four schools in California at which 15 percent or more students speak Mixteco as a first language. Three of those schools, Muller said, are in Santa Maria.
“So we really need to be at the forefront of outreach here,” he said.
In an effort to lead by example, the district’s Pathway to Success meetings also typically include presentations from successful Santa Maria-Bonita School District alumni, like former El Camino Jr. High School student Benito Camarillo, who discussed his journey through school as a migrant student at the May 31 meeting.
Camarillo, who moved to Santa Maria from Mexico when he was 12, said he had to overcome many of the obstacles indigenous students still face today.
“There are a lot of barriers,” Camarillo told the Sun. “Too often, indigenous students don’t make it to college.”
Like many Mixtec students, Camarillo said he learned to read, write, and speak both Spanish and English throughout his time in junior high and high school. It wasn’t easy, but Camarillo said support from some of his teachers, counselors, and parents pushed him through Santa Maria High School and then Fresno State.
Camarillo later returned to Santa Maria, where he now works as an immigration outreach specialist at Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, an organization that works to educate and advocate for Mixtec and other indigenous populations in the area.
Although the migrant education experience can be challenging, Camarillo said he wanted to show Mixtec students and their families that they, too, can make it through college.
“You’re smart,” Camarillo said, “You’re capable of learning and making it to college.”
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash writes School Scene each week. Information can be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 14-21, 2018.