WILBER ROMERO. "COPALAENSES EN EL PERIODICO"

Wilber: learning the language
By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter
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Wilber Romero says the Pledge of Allegiance in a language-arts class that's designed to help students at risk of failing the reading and writing sections of the WASL.

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Wilber Romero remembers the seventh-grade WASL as pages and pages of English words he couldn't read.
He'd arrived in the United States from Mexico about a year before, just days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He still knew little English. He felt bad about the test. Bad about school in general. Other students would start writing, and he had no idea what to do.
"It was horrible, Miss," he says.
His English has improved a lot since then. Last year, he had the second-highest score on an English-language test among immigrant students at Federal Way High. Still, he's among thousands of sophomores who will struggle with the WASL in large part because it's in English. Last year, less than a third of the students in English-language programs in Washington passed the 10th-grade reading WASL.
Wilber's also taking geometry, history and biology — although he's at risk of failing history and biology. He talks about dropping out, especially if he fails the WASL.
He lives with his mother, father and two younger siblings in an apartment near Federal Way High. They're from the small town of Copala in the Mexican state of Jalisco, and Wilber, 15, misses it — the morning drink with canela (cinnamon), the nearby woods where he played with friends, the dancing in the streets on holidays. He's never without the white, plastic rosary he wears over his shirt.
His father installs drywall for a living, and Wilber says that job doesn't always pay enough to cover the bills. One reason he's tempted to quit school is to help out.
His father tells him to continue, so he can get a good job — a better job. But Wilber's not sure.
Every day, he says, he tells himself to work harder, do his homework, go to the after-school tutoring program. But when the bell rings, he finds himself headed home instead, where he watches TV and visits friends.
"I just say it, but I don't do it," he says.
Why?
"I want to know that."
The WASL, he says, is good and bad.
"We're the first class to take it; it sucks," he says. On the other hand, "I know if they're going to make us take the WASL, we're going to do better in school."
He thinks about becoming an auto mechanic because he'd always have steady work. Not a teacher. He'd get mad at students who don't pay attention, he says.
David Vinson, his language-arts teacher, says he sees Wilber on the cusp of deciding whether to stay in school or leave. If Wilber stays, Vinson is confident he can pass his classes and the WASL.
He looks over at Wilber, who is sitting sideways in his chair, resting his back against the wall as he reads the 16 pages in "Of Mice and Men" he was supposed to finish for homework.
"Keep reading, Wilber," Vinson says. "Are you taking notes?""Yeah," Wilber replies, and waves a clump of Post-its.

COPALENSES EN EL PERIODICO

Yessica Sarahy Salgado Ramírez es Reina de la Feria Tolimán 2008
Redacción de El Sur mailto:buzon@periodicoelsur.comMiércoles 6 de Agosto del 2008




TOLIMAN, JALISCO, (EL SUR).- A pesar de que Jessica Sarahy Salgado Ramírez arraso con los títulos, las cinco participantes en el certamen para elegir la representante de la belleza de Tolimán, recibieron el reconocimiento del público que abarrotó el salón parroquial.
Las candidatas fueron Alejandra Gómez Guzmán, Wendy María González Vargas, Janet Estefanía Castellanos Gómez, Ruby Gómez Jiménez y Yessica Sarahy Salgado Ramírez, cuya participación inició con una coreografía en la que recrearon los juegos olímpicos, para después lucir un vestido de material reciclable y claro, un tema relacionado con la ecología, destacando las riquezas que el municipio posee, como son los manantiales La Taza y Las Palmas, el Río Ayuquila, el cerro del Petacal, entre otros.
Las candidatas cumplieron con su pasarela en traje de noche y contestaron una pregunta, demostrando su calidad como seres humanos y su capacidad, elementos que el jurado consideró para emitir su votación.
Primeramente y por decisión del público, se entregó la banda de Señorita Simpatía a Yessica Sarahy, que recibió también la de Embajadora de Turismo; Ruby fue Señorita Elegancia; mientras que Wendy María se llevó las bandas de Fotogenia y Princesa, y al final Jessica Sarahy sumó su tercera banda, la esperada por todas, la de Reina de la Feria.
A lo largo del programa el público disfrutó de la participación del grupo Kalani Kalakua de la maestra Gaby Sandoval de Sayula y sus danzas polinesias.
La coronación de Yessica Sarahy estuvo a cargo del alcalde Carlos Navarrete Navarrete y su esposa, Diana Flores de Navarrete, destacando el reconocimiento que se hizo a José Ramón Baltazar Nava, Director de Turismo y Cultura en el Municipio y organizador del certamen.
Como jueces se contó con la participación de la diseñadora Orietta Quiñónez, Laura Arrieta, diseñadora también; María del Carmen Casillas Velázquez del Patronato de Carnaval Autlán 2008 y Elizabeth Cárdenas Aldana, princesa del Carnaval Autlán 2007; asistiendo como invitados especiales funcionarios del gobierno municipal de Tecomán, Colima.
En el marco de la Feria Tolimán 2008, el viernes 8 se presentan los grupos folclóricos de Zapotitlán de Vadillo y el de Tolimán; para este sábado 9 se anuncia la Sesión Solemne de Ayuntamiento, marco del homenaje a personajes ilustres, esto al medio día, y por la noche, la actuación del ballet folclórico Tlayacan de Zapotlán El Grande.

LA REINA DE COPALA JALISCO AHORA ES LA DEL MPIO DE TOLIMAN