During my intern semester at Thompson High School I had the opportunity to meet a 16 year old
male Hispanic student, who for the purposes of this report I will call John. He is an academically and
athletically gifted student who works very hard to keep his grades up and develop his athletic skills as
well. John was born in the United States, but his mother and father are originally from El Salvador. He
currently lives in Alabaster with his mother and step-father, who is originally from Mexico.
John’s mother left El Salvador when she was 16 years old because of a civil war in that country.
Her grandfather was living in Atlanta at the time as a resident alien, and received permission to bring
John’s mother to the US. While living there she married John’s father and gave birth to him and his older
sister and younger sister. At some point in time his mother and father split, and his mother moved the
family to Alabaster. John’s father currently works construction in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and he has
little contact with him. Not long after the move, John’s mother remarried to his step-father.
John’s family is somewhat unique among the Hispanic community because they are of the
Baptist faith. He told me that in El Salvador many people are Protestant, and not Catholic like in much
of Central America and South America. He related to me that his step-father was a converted Roman
Catholic, and the family regularly attends church services together.
Family life is important to John. He told me that in El Salvador families were very close. I asked
him if he spoke any Spanish at home. He told me that he spoke something of a mixture of Spanish and
English, Spanglish as he called it, but could readily speak both languages. His Spanish is a different
dialect than that spoken in Mexico and South America, but he could understand most of what other
Spanish speakers were saying. He compared it to the difference in English spoken in the northern and
southern regions of the US.
Another component of his family life is El Salvador styled food. Though the family does enjoy
American style food, his favorites are types of food his mother learned to cook while living in El
Salvador. One of his favorite dishes is called papusa, a corn meal tortilla stuffed with rice or beans and a
meat, often chicken. Another of his favorite dishes is tamales, which is also a corn tortilla stuffed with
various ingredients and cooked in a corn husk. I asked him what the difference was between El
Salvador’s food and that of what most people think of as traditional Hispanic or Mexican food. John said
that the food from El Salvador is not as spicy, because they do not use the same type of seasonings such
as habaneros and jalapeños.
I then asked him if he had ever been to El Salvador or Mexico, but he has not. John told me he
one day would like to go, but would probably not be until after he graduates high school. I asked him
then what he knew about El Salvador. He said that there were some similarities to Mexico, but that
most people spoke a different version of Spanish. Another difference was that most people were not
Catholic, but of the Protestant faith. However like in Mexico, people there do not have even the most
simple American commodities, such as pens and paper, cellphones, televisions, cars, and other everyday
items that most Americans use every day. El Salvador is a very poor country, and many people have
never even been to a large city.
John does consider himself to be a member of the Hispanic community. He is proud of his
heritage, and has a number of friends who are Hispanic. That is not to say that he does not also have
friends from other racial groups. He sees himself as a person who is willing to accept all sorts of people
so long as they respect him as a person as well. I find this to be true of him because he easily interacts
with many of his classmates very easily, and he is a pleasant young man to be around.
I asked John what he liked to do in his free time. He told me that he enjoys soccer and has
played since he was a kid. John also likes to watch professional soccer from the Mexican, Spanish, and
English Premiere Leagues. Like many of his friends he likes to go to movies and hang out on the
weekends. However he is quick to point out that family time is also very important to him.
Concluding the interview I asked John what he would like to do when he graduated. He told me
he wanted to join the Marines, but his mother does not want him to do that. He said that he has always
admired the recruiters when they come to school, but he does not want to go against his mother’s
wishes. Police work is another possibility for him. He wants to go to college and study something to do
with criminal justice, with the idea of becoming an investigator or CSI criminologist. Sociology is another
area that interests him, and is a consideration for when he graduates.