Bilingual–Spanish Tutoring

As you probably know, community members who immigrate or migrate from other countries do much of the manual labor in our region–farm work, domestic/cleaning work, and care work. This work is often obscured so we can ignore conditions we may otherwise object to. Efforts that go unrecognized also involve helping to onboard new community members to the language, norms and etiquette of the Valley and our institutions. This valuable yet uncompensated work often occurs in the home, workplace, church, or other civic spaces and is largely done by women.

I often interact with folks who speak English as a second language with Spanish as their first language. I'd love to pay a friend from Mexico, a fantastic person who courageously escaped violence with her young children, to facilitate one-on-one tutoring sessions in her home with other native-Spanish speakers. My friend is excluded from the mainstream economy due to bureaucratic obstacles (the sort that arise when one is swiftly fleeing for their life), yet she is one of the most hardworking people I have ever met.

My goal with this fundraiser is to bypass as much red tape as possible to get cash into the pocket of someone already doing this educational/cultural work uncompensated. $1,000 for a few months of weekly 2.5hr. tutoring sessions is reasonable. I will not track hours, observe methods, or account for specific outcomes. I'm just going to give my friend the cash and trust that she will do what needs to be done. I will support her tutoring efforts in any way I can with study materials, relevant suggestions, etc.

Suppose this is too loosey-goosey of an ask for you, no worries! If you understand the desire to occasionally avoid the matrix of banks and non-profit grant requirements that may perpetuate inequality, click the donate button!