Southampton Schools Sets New Bar for World Language Initiatives

The Mayan culture features 32 different languages, two of which are extinct. The rest fall into six branches and are predominantly spoken in Central American countries, such as Guatemala — which is where Bilma Pedro was born and raised.

There, in her small village, she spoke Q’anjob’al.

The Indigenous language has 26 consonant sounds and five vowel sounds — as compared to 24 and 20, respectively, in English — and includes letters like “tx,” “xh” and “ch,” with an apostrophe that represents an ejective.

Wearing a traditional Mayan dress, Pedro slipped into her native tongue, describing her outfit in a video that helped the recent Southampton High School graduate become the first student to earn the New York State Seal of Biliteracy in Q’anjob’al — marking one of the few times that the state has recognized literacy in an Indigenous language altogether, according to her former Spanish teacher, Sarah Trujillo Underhill.

“It’s a very slow process, a politic of recognizing diversity in ways that are real,” she said. “We speak a lot about how New York State has this big DEI Task Force at the school, and it’s great and it’s a start, but we need to be very specific and just celebrate who we are. I think sometimes we overcomplicate things and the diversity is sitting right in front of us.”

On the East End, the Southampton School District has one of the most vibrant world language programs in the region, with initiatives ranging from hosting a teaching fellow through the International Spanish Academy and holding English as a Second Language adult classes — in partnership with Eastern Suffolk BOCES — to starting a dual language program, which begins in kindergarten, almost 20 years ago.

It has only continued to thrive, as rising senior Marielle Costa can attest.

She was late to the game, she said, and applied to participate when she was in second grade. “It was the talk of the town,” she said of the program, and it was competitive.

“We enrolled, and thank God we won the lottery,” the 17-year-old said, “because I don’t know what I’d do without it at this point.”

In Southampton Town, while some students speak Lithuanian, Turkish, French, American Sign Language and other languages, the numbers are nowhere near the demographics for Spanish speakers, which is nearly half of the district’s population, explained Underhill. Through the dual language program, it helps create a “platform where families and students can find voices in a way that’s guided and safe for all community members,” she said.

For Marielle, learning Spanish has served as a bridge to new people and cultures, and fanned an interest in learning other languages.

“It’s just kind of been like a big connecting part in my life,” she said. “After I started to get more involved, everything slowly started making sense, you know? It’s just really made me appreciate everything a lot more.”

Come June, Marielle will graduate with the Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish after meeting a list of six criteria, Underhill said, which includes passing coursework and a test, and completing a project, in both English and the language of choice, after meeting the requirements of a Regents diploma. For students in the dual language program, the final project is waived.

“Our school offers the dual language program, where they use a certain curriculum to get you to that level, for Spanish specifically,” Marielle explained, adding, “If anyone is ever on the fence about debating learning a language, even if it’s just a little bit — do it. Nothing bad could possibly ever come from learning a language, only positives.

“And that’s kind of what I tell everyone I ever run into,” she continued. “I’m just, like, learn a language, because it really opens up your world.”

All three schools in the district have been designated as International Spanish Academy networked schools, which means that each building’s program meets the standards and requirements set by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in Spain. Students can also earn the Seal of Biliteracy in French, American Sign Language and, soon, Italian — which are all taught in Southampton — but they can also choose another language, if they learn it on their own.

With the help of last year’s Spanish teaching fellow, Álvaro Muñoz-Espliego, Marielle set her sights on learning German — and he just so happened to speak it.

“It was crazy, because I don’t think I would have been able to learn German on my own at all. It’s really hard,” she said. “But learning Spanish definitely sparked a want to speak other languages, and my goal is now to at least dabble in a little bit of every language so that I can get around and I can communicate with people wherever I go.”

While learning other languages has certainly helped Marielle in her travels, it has also connected her with Spanish-speaking students, including Pedro, who not only had to learn English when she immigrated to the United States at age 16 but Castilian as well.

“Bilma’s, like, the sweetest person alive. We didn’t have any classes together, but we had done a couple of clubs outside of school together,” Marielle said. “She was always involved with everything, which I thought was really cool to see, especially as an underclassman. It was kind of, like, a little inspiration for me. I was, like, ‘That’s so cool. I want to be just like that.’”

Growing up in Guatemala, Pedro — who is now 20 years old — began learning Castilian in fourth grade, but it was only reading and writing, she said in Spanish, with Underhill providing translation. But she found that when she spoke it, she was bullied by her classmates.

In the United States, it was doubly challenging learning both Spanish and English simultaneously, she said. “It was difficult for me,” she said in English, before switching back to her more comfortable Spanish.

“She’s saying she’s feeling very emotional,” Underhill translated, “so it’s difficult for her to say it in English.”

In the Spanish-speaking community at Hamptons Church in Wainscott, Pedro has found community, she said. She is also working on developing her skills as an artist, currently dabbling in abstract drawing and painting.

And, above all, she is keeping her deep connection to where she came from alive — wearing the same traditional red dress during an interview last week, explaining that one of her aunts shipped it from Guatemala.

“I asked her to send it to me because I felt proud to wear something that represents my Guatemalan culture and to let people know what a Guatemalan woman would wear in her traditional culture,” she said in Spanish, as relayed by Underhill.

In earning a novel Seal of Biliteracy — she also received one in Castilian, Underhill noted — Pedro said she hopes that others are inspired to show who they truly are, too, whether that’s through language or another part of their culture.

“Since I see in Guatemala that there is not initiative or the politics of really showcasing the different Mayan cultures and languages, I would like to tell everyone that they don’t hide their cultures or the languages that they speak,” she said in Spanish, as translated by Underhill, “and that they be proud of showcasing and being the people that they were raised to be.”

“Is that your message for other immigrants, or for everyone?” her teacher asked.

“For everyone,” Pedro said — this time in English.