Carmenza Kline parts her perfectly lined red lips and begins to speak.
“¿Cómo te sientes participando en una clase que te haga trabajar con la comunidad hispana?” she asks her 41 students, the words eloquently rolling off her tongue, almost melodious. “How do you feel about participating in a class that requires you to work with the members of the Hispanic community?”
Hands rise into the air.
In 2003, Kline started a new course at James Madison University, in which nearly bilingual students would have the opportunity to work with local Spanish-speaking Harrisonburg residents. The course, which began with only eight students, has grown in popularity over the past few years. Some volunteers aid Hispanic students in their work at Harrisonburg High School and Thomas Harrison Middle School, while others help out at the Social Security office, Free Clinic, Mercy House thrift store or Big Brothers Big Sisters.
“I thought it was necessary for our students to get involved with the community,” Kline says. “This course lets them absorb the culture, instead of just speaking the language.”
Her passion for spreading the Spanish language and ethnicity comes from her homeland Bogotá, Colombia, where she lived until she was 19. When she arrived in the Shenandoah Valley over 30 years ago, Kline got right to work.
“I used to go to the poultry farms and apple orchards in Timberville, where a lot of the Hispanic migrants worked,” she says, her dark eyes gazing off as if evoking a distant memory. “They were lonely and not used to being in a new place, so I would go and speak to them in Spanish to keep them company.”
With her flawless manicure that matches her lipstick, and her tan suit blending in with her Colombian skin, it’s almost impossible to imagine the immaculate professor standing beneath the trees among immigrant laborers.
But, according to Kline, she did just that, and eventually founded the Hispanic Club in Harrisonburg, where she threw fiestas for Spanish-speaking residents.
“We cooked beans, rice and enchiladas, and everyone would dance and talk,” Kline says. “But it also gave children the opportunities to speak Spanish to one another while learning to love their culture at the same time.”
Being one of only two Hispanics in Harrisonburg when she arrived in 1969, Kline has watched the percentage of Spanish-speaking residents rise dramatically over the past three decades. According to a 2003 census, nearly 4,000 Hispanics and Latinos live in the city, which was why Kline felt the need for her students to reach out into the community and use the skills they are being taught in the classroom.
Foreign Languages Department Head Giuliana Fazzion says the course has attracted a growing number of students to the Spanish major and minor.
“You can learn a language and its rules in a classroom, but the course lets the students experience the real environment where to practice the language and learn the culture,” Fazzion says. “Offering more classes dealing with the culture helps the students understand the growing Hispanic population.”
JMU senior Meg Beazley is enrolled in Kline’s practical class for the second semester in a row. Beazley works with a 4-year-old boy named Orlando at Asbury United Methodist Church’s daycare. Since Orlando’s primary language is Spanish, his teachers were unable to effectively communicate with him.
“When I came in and spoke Spanish to him, his eyes instantly lit up,” Beazley says, remembering the first time she met Orlando. “Once he realized that I could understand him, he started talking a mile a minute.”
Amongst the tiny chairs and tiny people at the daycare, she has bonded with Orlando in a way his teachers never could. Beazley recalls the moment in which she realized the intense connection that can form from the simple sound of a language.
“I knelt down to help him zip up his jacket,” she says, a touch of affection underlying her words as she recalls the memory. “And as I was zipping it up, he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a huge kiss. My heart melted.”
Beazley teaches Orlando simple lessons like the parts of the body in Spanish, but she feels he is gaining a greater message from their meetings.
“For a 4-year-old, almost everything is complicated,” Beazley says. “But imagine being 4 years old and everything you hear sounds foreign and chaotic, and you can’t comprehend a word anyone says. It must be overwhelming for Orlando.”
But perhaps the greatest lesson of all is being discovered by the teacher herself.
“It’s an amazing feeling to know I have made a difference in his life,” Beazley divulges. “He lights up when I walk in the door. His small smile makes my day.”
Beazley calls Orlando her medicine.
“He puts everything in check for me,” she says warmly. “I sometimes think I get more out of our sessions than he does.”
Without Kline’s class, Beazley is unsure if she would have ever reached out to the Harrisonburg residents. The practical course has pushed her to experience places and meet people in the city that might have remained just buildings or strangers.
“She puts her passion back on us,” says Beazley when describing her Spanish professor. “[Kline] makes you want to prove that you are just as passionate and caring as she is.”
Beazley says she has carried more away from Kline’s class than any of her other courses. Instead of lecturing the students, Kline gives them the life experiences that they all can learn from.
But Kline admits she is learning, too. Through her course, Kline has come to realize the problems the Hispanic community will face in the future. Social troubles are arising because communication between parents and children of Spanish descent is deteriorating, she says.
“As children learn English in school, they begin to think of their parents as inferior, since they are unable to fully communicate with them,” she says, shaking her head. “Not wanting to be rejected at school, the child picks English first and their parents second.”
Kline’s goal is to overcome these problems through her new course. She discusses in her class that the volunteers should help make the children understand the intricacies and beauty of the Spanish culture and language.
“I tell my students to explain to the children that the language is so pretty, so beautiful, and that they should be proud to be bilingual,” she says.
Through the course, junior Greg Brandon has become involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters. Once a week, Brandon meets with Victor, an 11-year-old Hispanic student at Thomas Harrison Middle School. However, since Victor speaks English fluently, Brandon has a hard time getting him to converse in Spanish.
Victor admits this is a problem at his home. “When my sister was born, her first words were in English because she always heard me and my uncle speaking it,” says the 11-year-old, with a touch of a Spanish accent. “My mom was so scared at this.”
Victor doesn’t seem fazed that his mom is worried about the Spanish language slowly vanishing from her children’s lips. He goes back to concentrating on the game he is playing with Brandon.
Suddenly, Victor looks up with a grin on his face and tells Brandon how he tries to get his two younger sisters to call him “the king.”
“El rey,” says Brandon, pronouncing the Spanish word for king. Brandon’s American pronunciation of the word brings immediate giggles from Victor.
Although Brandon may not be perfecting his Spanish skills, he feels he is a good role model for Victor.
“When we go our separate ways, I hope he’ll remember something I did or said,” Brandon says. “With any luck, he’ll hold on to that memory and say, ‘I want to be like that.’”
Brandon believes every student at the university should attempt to make a difference in the community, which is why he feels Kline’s class is so beneficial. According to Brandon, the course not only sends the students to work with the residents, but also discusses important topics about the Latin community to make them feel more linked to the culture.
“I could go take another literature class and eventually graduate,” Brandon says. “Or I could go make a difference in a kid’s life. You’d be crazy to pick the literature course.”
By means of her commitment to both community service and teaching, Kline has opened up a new world for her students and has enabled them to embrace culture and differences. Her dedication has not gone unnoticed.
In 2001, the JMU Alumni Association honored Kline for her loyalty to teaching with the Distinguished Faculty Award. Besides being actively involved in the Shenandoah Valley, Kline is highly recognized abroad.
In 1987, Kline created the Semester in Salamanca program, in which university students live with Spanish-speaking families abroad. The University of Salamanca is one of the oldest and most distinguished institutions in all of Europe. She directed the program for 14 years, and although she is no longer in charge, her ties with the University of Salamanca remain solid and respected. Some of her colleagues at the university serve as visiting professors at JMU. The educational institutions in Colombia also have recognized her devotion to international education and awarded her with the Felix Restrepo Medal from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia. She also has written five books and 30 articles that have been internationally publicized.
But out of all the awards she has obtained thus far, Kline admits the Distinguished Faculty Award means the most to her.
“This award was given to me by the students and the Alumni Association, and that’s the greatest gift of all,” Kline says. The plaque sits on her desk next to a white clay sculpture created by one of her grandchildren. She keeps it there as a reminder of those who matter most to her.
In her classroom, the hands keep rising. Each hand has a different, unique story about their work done through her practical class. It is at this moment, with the sun setting and casting an orange glow across Kline in the front of room, that you can finally imagine her under the apple trees many years ago. She has managed to change the lives of many in the community and continues to instill that notion in her students.
Everyone has something to say in every language — and, according to Kline, you just have to find them and listen.
