Immigrants’ Kids Pumped For School Year

Lucia Nunez Del Prado, Brayan Sanchez, and Milton Guzman are ready for the new school year to begin Monday: They have their vaccine shots, they’re even OK with wearing masks. And, after experiencing remote learning, they much prefer the idea of being back in class in person.

Lucia, Brayan and Milton represent the new face of New Haven public school students: The trio’s families hail from Bolivia, Mexico and Peru. They attend a school system in which Latinos have constituted the largest ethnic or racial group for six years, growing to 47 percent. The latest U.S. Census figures show that Latinos have become the city’s largest ethnic group overall, as well.

As the new school year dawned, the three students (who also work as interns at La Voz Hispana de CT) spoke about their hopes and dreams, not just for this year’s classes, but beyond as well.

The Psychologist

Lucia Nunez Del Prado, 17, is a rising junior at Hillhouse High School. She immigrated to New Haven last year in June 2020 from Bolivia with her mom. She refers to her mom, who is transfeminine, as her ​“Mapí” (“mamá and papí in one”).

Lucia lives in Prospect Hill. She was placed at Hillhouse last year, where she began remotely in the fall, then went to school in-person for the first time in April.

“It was new, but not too different,” she said.

To prepare for the return to school this fall, Lucia got fully vaccinated this summer. She said she looks forward to continuing to learning to speak English while at Hillhouse. Despite slight nerves, she said, she is ready to go to school in person; she was tired of going to class remotely.

Lucia went to Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, a private Catholic school in La Paz. ​“It was one of the best,” she said.

In Bolivia, she said, she had more classes for shorter periods of time during school. She also recalled getting a lot more homework than in New Haven.

“School is easy here,” she said.

Her family had to leave Bolivia after receiving several serious threats, she said. Lucia, her Mapí and younger brother lived in Mexico for six months before coming to New Haven. She has an older sister who lives in Chile and two younger sisters who remain in Bolivia.

Though unsure as of where yet, in two years Lucia plans to go to college to focus in psychology and communications. After college she hopes to move back to Bolivia.

“I like to help people,” she said.

The Video Game Streamer

Brayan Sanchez, 13, is a rising eighth grader at Truman School. Born in Los Angeles, he was raised by family in both L.A .and Mexico. His mother immigrated from Mexico to L.A., then moved to New Haven, where they now live in the Hill neighborhood.

As an infant Brayan was raised by family in Mexico. He attended kindergarten there, then returned to his mother to attend school in L.A . He moved to New Haven permanently for sixth grade at Truman two years ago. He visits his family in Mexico every year.

Brayan recalled walking to school every day while living in Mexico at 5 years old. He described his childhood school as small with big classrooms stocked with play dough. ​“When the teachers told us to do our work, they would tell us if we finished, we could play with the play dough,” he said.

He also remembered doing a volcano project in kindergarten. He was the first student to figure out what liquid [vinegar] would react with the baking soda to make the volcano erupt.

As for this year, Sanchez said, he is prepared with three new book bags to pick from and enough school supplies to last him the full school year. When he returns to school Monday, Sanchez said, he is most excited to go to gym class and to see his friends again. He has also gotten fully vaccinated out of precaution and plans to encourage his friends to do the same.

“I’m a little nervous,” he said. ​“I want my friends to get vaccinated so they won’t get sick.”

He is looking forward to speaking English while at school. At home his parents ask that he mostly speak Spanish. Brayan recalled learning English in the first grade after returning from school in Mexico. ​“It was so hard. I thought I was going to never get it,” he said. ​“Now I know it, and I’m forgetting some words in Spanish.”

During remote learning last year, Brayan said, he would get distracted easily during his classes. ​“My teachers couldn’t hear or see me, so I could just play Fortnite on my ps4 or sleep,” he said.

This resulted in him getting a D in writing class and his ps4 taken away because of his struggles with math.

Returning to ​“normal school” will help him improve his grades because he can get his teachers’ attention more easily, Brayan said. He hopes to be a famous YouTube game streamer in the future, although his parent’s don’t recognize a streamer as a ​“real job.”

The Lawyer

Milton Guzman, 12, is entering seventh grade at Fair Haven School. Born in New Haven, he is being raised by his mother, who immigrated from Peru.

This past school year Milton struggled with remote learning. During the start of the pandemic, Milton said, remote learning was fun, because he got to stay home. One month into remote learning, he was ready to go back to school.

While learning remotely, Milton noticed his grades were beginning to fall. Instead of As and Bs, Milton began getting Bs and Cs. Once he returned to school in person in March, he immediately noticed his grades improving.

“On the computer, I couldn’t ask my teacher questions, because I didn’t want the other students to hear me,” Milton said. During class in-person, he finds it easy to get one-on-one time with his teachers.

He added that his remote work was ​“mostly stuff I learned before.”

Milton lives in Fair Haven. He learned English from his older sister and Spanish from his mother. He often translates for his mother, who knows little English.

This year Milton he looks forward to taking Spanish to ​“learn new words I never knew.”

One day Milton hopes to visit her mother’s native country of Peru. He recalled a video his sister took during a visit to Peru, of her sliding down a hill of sand. ​“I want to go there and do that,” he said.

Milton convinced his mom to let him get vaccinated this summer. He said he doesn’t mind that he will have to wear a mask during school.

“Mask are normal to me,” he said. ​“I think it’s good we wear them, so we don’t contaminate people who could have sick families at home.”

Milton plans to be a lawyer in the future to help immigrants. He got the idea at around 8 years old while watching his and his mom’s favorite court show in Spanish. ​“I love it, and it got me interested in being judge maybe,” he said