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Sharing Pride In Heritage

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 3, 2007

Updated: 11/01/2007 08:11 pm

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - Monica Sleeter learned to speak English at age 9 in the suburbs of New Orleans. Her family emigrated from Colombia, and she was nervous in her new country.

On Super Bowl Sunday in January 1985, her family moved to Tampa, and she enrolled as a sophomore at Hillsborough High School. In March 1987, when she and her sister, Claudia, also at Hillsborough, earned their U.S. citizenship, it was announced over the school's intercom. Monica Sleeter was thoroughly embarrassed.

That is a long-lost feeling for Sleeter, 38, who teaches reading at Hillsborough. She talks proudly of her heritage and encourages her students to do the same.
Sleeter - or "Sleetdog" to her students - said Hillsborough "is such a big mix of colors." She has Indian, Vietnamese, Thai and Haitian students; minority students outnumber white students. She said she seeks to defuse racial and cultural tensions by promoting cross-cultural understanding.

"If you don't know where your ancestors came from, you're living in a bubble," Sleeter said. "It's part of who you are."

Gov. Charlie Crist honored Sleeter and two Miami teachers with the inaugural Excellence in Education Award on Oct. 15 as part of Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. Sleeter drove to the governor's mansion in Tallahassee with her husband, Scott, her two children, Destiny Bermúdez and Zoë Sleeter, and her mother, Edilma Bermúdez, to receive the $1,500 award and a $500 Office Depot gift card for school supplies.

Crist spokesman Thomas Philpot said the awards were established to celebrate Florida's cultural heritage and recognize the contributions of Hispanic educators.
Sleeter was nominated by one of her former students, Hillsborough senior Ena Vizcaino, 17.

Vizcaino also was born in Colombia. Her family immigrated to Tampa in January 2006. Once here, she said she experienced discrimination against Hispanics in general and from the Hispanic community itself.

"Other students said Colombia was all war and drugs and crack," Vizcaino said. "Mrs. Sleeter would say, 'Don't get yourself down. You know Colombia better than any of them.'"

Vizcaino said Sleeter took away her shame and embarrassment.

"She's always proud of her heritage," Vizcaino said. "She always tries to bring us up."
Sleeter said the birth of her children deepened her desire to know her heritage.

While earning English and Spanish degrees at the University of South Florida, she discovered Hispanic authors, which "opened up my world to writers and women I was not aware existed - so removed was I from my Latin American roots.

"I knew of the music and dances because of my father, but not the literature," she said.

She fell in love with the works of Miguel de Cervantes, Gloria Anzaldua, Julia Alvarez, Sor Juana, Judith Ortiz Cofer and Sandra Cisneros. Sleeter wrote a paper on how language affects identity.

"The idiosyncrasies, the vernacular each of my students chooses to use, defines him or her," Sleeter said. "When teachers or others - society at large, even - tell you that the language you grew up with, the only one you've known, is somehow not good enough, it affects your psyche.

"So I tell all my English language learner students, 'Yes, learn English, master it. But do not forget the language of your ancestors, be it Spanish, Creole, Vietnamese, etc.'"

She has students read and discuss current affairs.

"If you raise the bar, they'll meet it," Sleeter said. "You have to embrace who you are and who other people are and look beyond your own shoes."

TIPS FOR HISPANIC STUDENTS

Monica Sleeter, a Colombian immigrant, U.S. citizen and award-winning Hillsborough High School teacher, offers advice to Hispanic students:

•Read books in English; watch movies with English subtitles.

•If you don't understand something, ask, and then ask again if the first answer isn't clear. It's your teacher's job to help you learn.

•If your parents don't speak English, find a teacher or counselor who can help you. There is an abundance of them in the Tampa Bay area.

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 835-2114 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

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