CAHUILLA: Two sisters pass on their knowledge to students (fwd)

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CAHUILLA: Two sisters pass on their knowledge to students
http://www.pe.com/digitalextra/metro/tribes/vt_stories/PE_News_Local_hclass11.e647.html
08:03 AM PST on Wednesday, February 11, 2004

By HAN KWAK / The Press-Enterprise


SAN JACINTO - The instructors were about namekwana minutes late.

That's five minutes for those who don't speak Cahuilla.

Sisters Lorina Duro and Virginia Duenaz, who are liaisons with the
Soboba Cultural Center on the Soboba Indian Reservation, are passing on
what they know of the language to students at San Jacinto Valley
Academy."I thought maybe we might not be able to keep their attention,"
Duro said of the students, who range from the second to sixth grade.

DeeAnn Bradley / The Press-Enterprise
[photo insert] Xochiquetzal Medina, 10, identifies a fork and plate in
Cahuilla with laughing teacher Virginia Duenaz in back.

But the students are active in class. On a recent day, their hands shot
up when Duro asked for the name of numerous objects used as visual
aids.

Donna Buck, principal of the charter school, said the idea was pitched
by a graduating student last year who wanted to learn Luiseño as a
second language. Luiseño is spoken by members of the Soboba Band of
Luiseño Indians.

"We value a second language at our school," Buck said, adding that
Spanish is offered to all students, but that a handful study other
languages as well, such as Hebrew.

However, the school could not locate a fluent Luiseño speaker to teach
the class. So Duenaz, whose grandson Angel Casarez attends the school,
offered to teach the Cahuilla language instead.

"I wanted to try it out, to see what response we get from the children,"
Duenaz said.

Interested, Buck offered a 10-week class to the school's students as an
elective. Twenty-one students signed up for the class. About half are
non-Indian students, Buck said.

"A lot of them seemed to pick it up quick," Duro said of the non-Indian
children.

Many of the students have taken Spanish classes, so the pronunciation of
Cahuilla words comes easier because the languages share similar sounds,
Duro said.

Fourth-grader Ryan Reid said he enjoyed learning Spanish and wanted to
take on another language. He said he practices the vocabulary at home
to the confusion of his family.

"They have no clue what I'm talking about," Ryan said.

Duro said she is learning the Cahuilla language herself as a master
apprentice under her mother-in-law, Kathleen Duro.

Although the sisters' mother was from the Cahuilla reservation near Anza
and spoke to the girls with a mix of Spanish, English and Cahuilla,
Duro said they are not fluent speakers.

"I'm definitely not a fluent speaker," Duro said. "But what I've learned
I'm giving it."

Duro said she tries to teach the students as her mother-in-law teaches
her: by using repetition and visual aids.

Sometimes the lessons Duro learns are done in an everyday setting
through conversation.

"We just sat around and had lunch," Duro said of one session she had
with her teacher.

Those lessons are brought to the classroom in the form of song and games
such as Cahuilla bingo, a game that familiarizes students with the
translation of numbers.

Many of the children said they signed up for the class out of curiosity
but a few said they want to continue the studies.

"There's only a few people speaking it and I want to be one of those
people," said sixth-grader Anyssa Baca.

Reach Han Kwak at (909) 763-3456 or hkwak at pe.com