Meet Waldo Alvarado, our Presenter
Presenter
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Waldo Alvarado won the lottery when he was 29 years old. Well, not
literally, but he sure felt that way. He boarded a plane in El Salvador
and was off to Texas with fifty dollars in his pocket and a Fulbright
scholarship, one of the most prestigious international educational
exchange awards, towards a Master’s Program in counseling waiting
for him. His room, board, and living expenses were all taken care of
due to the Fulbright Scholarship, which is an amazing achievement. In
July of 1989, Waldo was tired from his journey, excited as the plane
touched down, and motivated to be in a new country. As he took a
look at his new life developing before him, he felt a sense of welcome
and a sense of America.
Waldo grew up in Zacatecoluca, province of La Paz, El Salvador. As
Waldo moved into his high school years, he moved to San Salvador
where he stayed until he completed his professional degree in
psychology. He graduated from the Central American University.
Prior to coming to the US, he worked as a college professor at his
alma mater. He had five siblings, and his parents made a living as
educators. His father was a high school principal and his mother was
an elementary school teacher.
Waldo’s memories of El Salvador largely have to do with being in the
outdoors. He explained it as being like summer all year round,
spending a lot of time at the rivers, lakes and beaches. Since his
country was so small, he remembers that from wherever you were,
you were only an hour and a half from the beach. He does not recall
spending too much time watching television or doing electronic
entertainment because of the amount of time they all spent outdoors.
He remembers his years as a boy scout going camping and other
events planned in the outdoors. His father was a lifeguard and Waldo
and his siblings would spend their summers swimming in local pools,
the beach, and even participating in swimming competitions. Music
and storytelling was also a main part of their entertainment. American
pop music was played on the radio, Waldo used to collect the lyrics
from popular American artists, which is how he got interested in the
English language and culture.
One of the hardest things about going to visit his home country is
dealing with how much it changes. Since El Salvador is a land of
volcanoes and lakes, it serves as a dangerous combination for
earthquakes. Waldo’s town is at the bottom of the Chichontepec
(Nahuac for “two breasts”) volcano. The impact of these natural
occurrences, including huge earthquakes, involves the possible
change of the community’s landscape every few years.
When Mr. Alvarado was 29, he received the Fulbright Scholarship to
the University of Pennsylvania. Waldo explains that unlike a majority
of Salvadorans, he flew to America with all the immigration documents
in order. He did not need many possessions because his scholarship
covered everything. Mr. Alvarado lived at the University of Texas at
Austin for twenty days before flying to the University of Pennsylvania.
He left El Salvador in 1989, when the civil war was at its peak of
violence. Since the scholarship only covered his expenses, he had to
leave his wife and two sons behind. The brutality of the civil conflict
only increased as time went on, so with the help of the university, his
wife and sons joined him in Philadelphia.
After graduation, there was a possibility that he had to return to El
Salvador. Mr. Alvarado desperately searched for any way to stay in
America. Fortunately, he found an internship that was perfect for him.
Family Guidance Center in Reading was in need of a Spanish-speaking
family therapist. Waldo was able to stay in the country for one more
year. When his internship was over, he returned to his college
professor job in San Salvador. Soon after, he received a phone call
asking him to move to Reading as a full time counselor. He and his
wife agreed that it was an opportunity they could not pass up. He
and his family received visas as nonimmigrant workers. Upon
returning, Waldo enrolled at Kutztown University to get his
certification as a secondary school counselor. A couple of years ago,
Waldo, his wife and two older sons took the oath as American
citizens. They call Reading their new home town where they live, work
and go to school.
Waldo currently works at Reading High school as a counselor, but he
is also a trainer/consultant speaking to people at colleges, high
schools, businesses, and corporations about diversity, cross-cultural
communication, and the new role of school counselors. Waldo is a
certified consultant for the Education Trust’s National Center for
Transforming School Counseling. He is also a member of the
American School Counselor Association Site-Based Training Network.
He speaks on how people tend to group Latinos together as one race
when in reality, the people come from over twenty separate countries,
live in different geographical locations, and have different socio-
political histories. His story is a new side of Latino immigration that
many people do not hear about. People often generalize about
Latinos, which is why Waldo believes this Hispanic Histories project
detailing his atypical journey to America is important. Waldo himself is
even subject to bias and over-generalizations. Waldo has been often
mistaken as “another Latino who speaks no English, is uneducated,
and lives in concentrated poverty”. Experiences like these make Waldo
passionate to educate people about Latinos.
Depending on where people are from, they think about specific
groups of Latinos from their area according to Mr. Alvarado. People
from Florida think of Cubans; people from California think of
Mexicans; people from Reading think of Puerto Ricans and
Dominicans. In his professional development workshops on diversity,
Mr. Alvarado states that Latinos are not a race; they are an ethnic
group with all the other races mixed in, and Latinos may look like
many other ethnic groups. He also speaks on the demographics of
many Latin American countries as being similar to the United States.
Some are different, but many are the same.
Education is becoming more important in regards to financial success.
He believes that life is getting better for Latinos. According to Waldo’s
observations, seventy five percent of Reading High School is Latino
students, and too many do not graduate. He says that things may
not seem too good for Latinos now, but they are indeed getting
better. More students are graduating, and that is one of the main
reasons why Mr. Alvarado became a high school counselor. Waldo
recently completed his K-12 Principal certification from Alvernia
University. He wants to make a difference and encourage students to
graduate and go to college. He wants to encourage the new
generation of Latinos to become educated and better their families
and communities. Mr. Alvarado says the new generation, much like
himself, will become major players in government, in schools, and in
Berks County.
| Send inquiries and comments to: waldo@crossculturalskills.com Updated: 8/04/09 |
| Waldo Alvarado Written by Kelly Dohn and Cassandra Yatron (Penn State University) This article was published in "Hispanic Histories in Reading and Berks. A Glimpse into the Community". |