Quechua in the community
By hola | Published | No Comments
An interview with Julia Garcia, teacher and interpreter
Julia Garcia was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, a city in a valley of the Andes Mountains. She grew up speaking Quechua with her family and learned Spanish in elementary school.
After graduating from the teachers’ college at the Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo in Cochabamba, she was required to work for two years in rural Bolivia teaching English and Spanish to children who only spoke Quechua. Although only two years were required to become certified in teaching by the Bolivian government, she ended up spending seven years working in rural villages.
Later in 1977, she received her masters degree in educational psychology from Franz Tamayo University. While studying at the university, she worked in public radio where she broadcast segments in her native language.
Garcia immigrated to Washington, D.C. more than 25 years ago and has worked in education ever since. Currently, Garcia works as a Spanish teacher in the Arlington public school system. Despite the fact that her main career is teaching in Spanish, she has continued to embrace opportunities to teach Quechua. She has taught classes at both George Mason University and George Washington University.
Although she is far from her home country, Garcia said there is a “significant” community of Bolivians and Quechua speakers in the D.C. area. She said the community “is growing, because of people having children here, but not from immigration.” The journey to the United States, she said, “is too dangerous and expensive for most people.”
Many people in her community work as construction laborers and, unlike Garcia, are not fluent in English. Garcia has been a Quechua translator in the court system in D.C. a few times but there is not a great need. “I’m only asked once or twice a year,” she says.
Since coming to the United States, Garcia has remained an active member of the Bolivian community and has kept her heritage alive. Since 1997, Garcia has been a director at the Pro-Bolivia Cultural Committee, a nonprofit organization based in Arlington that is dedicated to preserving Bolivian folk heritage and folk dancing. She also conducts activities and workshops in Richmond about various customs and rituals of Bolivian people, especially the worshiping of La Pachamama or Mother Earth.
While growing up in Cochabamba, the importance of living in harmony with nature was ingrained within her, a belief she strives to spread through these workshops. Garcia also has passed down knowledge and customs of her home country to her son. Although he is not fluent, he can understand Quechua.
Her tight-knit Bolivian community meets almost every Saturday at a community center in Arlington, according to Garcia. Within these gatherings, bits of English, Spanish, and Quechua can all be heard.
This is the first in a series of occasional profiles highlighting the local presence of the native languages and cultures of Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.
— Alyssa Anderson
Recent Stories
