Hunting Season by Mirta Ojito Read Free Book Online Page A

English-language “Welcome to the Community” packets, were created and distributed to all patrons applying for library cards. Spanish-language and bilingual workshops were offered on topics that ranged from immigration and health awareness to fair housing, and bilingual story times were started. 6
    For much of the translation work the library relied on Kaleda, who had learned Spanish as an adult, a part-time clerk who was not in a public service area, and a part-time custodian. No one else in the library spoke Spanish. Kaleda knew she needed to find a full-time employee who was truly bilingual. She found what she was looking for right under the library’s roof, but it took time and a dash of luck to make it happen.
    One day Kaleda was speaking with a man who had attended one of the bilingual workshops and who stressed that what he and other Latinos in the area needed was a primer on how Patchogue worked. For instance, how to pay a parking ticket, understanding the difference between the local constables and the Suffolk County police, or how to apply to use the soccer field for a game. Kaleda listened and set out to organize the first bilingual village/librarymeeting. She spoke to the mayor, Paul Pontieri, who was interested. The meeting was set for November 3, 2004, and it was billed as “Viviendo en la Villa de Patchogue ”—Living in the Village of Patchogue.
    A supervisor for the Patchogue-Medford Adult Literary Consortium agreed to bring some of their English-language learners to the meeting. The consortium held citizenship classes at the library as well, and, by coincidence, one was scheduled the same day as the meeting, so those students too were expected to attend. The woman who taught the citizenship classes was Gilda Ramos, a part-time employee of the school district, who had been born and raised in Peru but who had lived on Long Island for six years.
    Flyers all over the village advertised the meeting, and though the text was riddled with mistakes and spelling errors it was understandable. Mayor Pontieri was expected to explain everything from where to park legally to how to apply for low-income housing.
    When Pontieri arrived shortly before 7:00 p.m., dozens of people were waiting for him. In the end, about one hundred crammed into a small room in the library basement. The mayor began to speak, but it was clear from the beginning that the community volunteer who was helping to interpret his words to Spanish was unable to translate. From her seat in the front, Ramos started whispering the correct translation to the beleaguered interpreter, who finally gave up, turned to Ramos, and asked, Do you want to do this? Because I can’t.
    Ramos leaped at the chance, went to the front of the room, and flawlessly translated the mayor’s words.
    From the side of the room, near the door, Kaleda liked what she saw and realized she had found just the person she was looking for. In 2005 Ramos began working in the library part-time as a clerk. Two years later, Kaleda was able to hire her in a newfull-time civil service category called “Spanish speaking library assistant,” and Ramos became an indispensable member of the library, teaching computer classes in Spanish, English as a second language, Spanish conversation, and, of course, her citizenship classes.
    Gilda Ramos was, like Kaleda, the right person at the right time in the right job. Trained as an interpreter in English and German in her native Peru, and endowed with a passion for public service and a terrific work ethic, Ramos was eager to help the newly arrived immigrants.
    She had started to learn English as a toddler in a Catholic preschool. Her love of the language and facility with it was such that, at night, before she said her prayers in Spanish, she recited the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary in English. When she was twelve, Ramos, one of two daughters of a single mother who worked as an assistant nurse and studied psychology, started earning money for the