Reinaleidy Cairos is a SPED teacher who went through a lot to become one. She immigrated to the United States when she was 14 years old and did not learn the language until after she graduated high school. She dropped out of college and started working and helping her mother pay the bills until she quit her toxic work environment. She then became a part-time student for 10 years at Miami-Dade College and Florida International University.
How difficult was high school when you immigrated?
When I came to this country, it was a big population of ESOL kids. What was good about that was they put us all together in one class and we would speak Spanish all the time. So, I don’t feel like I learned English while in high school because they kept us together. Our teachers and our classmates would just speak Spanish all the time.
When did you learn English?
After I graduated, when my cousin Lulu came from Texas, she lived in my house. We would talk to each other all the time since we were around the same age. She would talk to me in English, and I would talk to her in Spanish. We were teaching and practicing speaking in two languages with each other. We both got something out of it, and it was more immersive.
How did your struggles in learning a new language affect your academics, social life, and/or your career?
Socially, I always stayed in my little group because there were the people I identified with. People that just came from other countries that did not know the language, like in the same situation as me. And in the school, there were these cliques. They had the Barceló hallway, and I did not understand what the other kids were doing or saying. But I knew that they were making fun of us because we did not speak English.
It did not affect me academically in high school because like I said everything was in Spanish and we helped each other a lot. But I dropped out of college on my first or second semester. It was not for me, because it was ridiculously hard. Everything was in English; I did not understand anything about college. If I thought that high school was hard, college was even worse. I felt like I was drowning. I only went because my mom put a lot of pressure on me, so I did it to make her happy. Then I started working so I just left school.
What was your journey to becoming a SPED teacher?
I started by doing my senior hours for high school at the daycare and then they hired me as the aftercare teacher for homework help. After I left college, I had more time to work, so they promoted me to Pre-K teacher and then to other positions until I became director. I thought I was doing well because I had a good job until they sold it. The lady that came to buy that daycare was pretty much abusing me. She had me doing the jobs of four people and then when I was not meeting her expectations, she instead of coming to me and saying, “Hey, what’s going on?” But she did it in a meeting in front of everyone. I was very upset, and I started crying, so I quit on the spot. That’s when I realized I needed to go back to school. My mom got me a job at the hospital she worked at and I was doing my general courses at Miami Dade because I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. After a while, I decided to become a physical therapist, but one day I went to my nieces open house and started volunteering at their school. I loved working with children so I decided to become a teacher. After 10 years, I started applying for jobs. I originally wanted to become a kindergarten teacher, but at Lake Stevens, they offered me a SPED teaching job. And I wasn’t about to say no, you get what you get and you don’t get upset. I didn’t know what it was before applying but they explained it to me like it was pretty colors wrapped in unicorns. When really it is a lot of work, but it worked out and I like it.
How did you support Reinaleidy while she was struggling as new student and immigrant?
If she struggled, I never noticed. Anytime I saw her she seemed like she was doing fine. We never had to help her do any homework, not like we would be able to help her. But if she needed help, she never asked for it. She says that she did struggle a lot when she went to Miami Dade, but she only told me recently about her struggle in college. But I did not help her with anything because when I came here, I was so rude because I did not want to be here. I was having such a hard time; I was missing everything and everyone and she did not miss anything from Cuba. If she missed anything in Cuba, then she kept it to herself.
How has being an immigrant affected Reinaleidy academically or careerwise?
I don’t think being an immigrant affected her at all. She has always been a good girl, doing her work and never complaining. When she graduated high school, she graduated with honors! She did leave college but that’s because we could not pay for school. Then she just focused on working, she worked at the daycare for a while until they sold it. I met the new owner of the daycare back when Reina worked there, I hated her because she told me once that Reina was part of the package deal when she bought the place. I could not believe her! The audacity she to talk to me like that about my daughter! She was talking about my daughter as if she were a slave!
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