Speaking their language

NISSWA - Growing up in Bismarck, N.D., Edith Alvarez never imagined she'd end up living in Spain for several years and raising bilingual children.

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She didn't learn Spanish until she went to college.

But she's proof of how learning another language can unlock the door to endless possibilities. And the retired Spanish teacher hopes she has done that for many of the students she taught at Brainerd High School for 20 years. Some of her former students have contacted her, letting her know how Spanish charted the course for them in their careers and lives.

Edith Alvarez smiled as she spoke at her home in Nisswa. Alvarez retired from teaching Spanish at Brainerd High School in 2006, but she seems to be just as busy in retire-ment as when she worked full time at the high school.

Brainerd Dispatch/ Steve Kohls

"To me, it's essential," Alvarez said of learning another language. "You're opening someone's horizons so they can see themselves as part of a global society."

Alvarez said it's disappointing that several foreign languages, all but Spanish, have been cut in recent years in the Brainerd School District as part of budget reductions. She decided to retire in 2006 when the Spanish program at Forestview Middle School was cut in part to help save the job of Britt Qualley, a Forestview Middle School Spanish teacher who then took over her position.

Retirement has allowed her to travel more, although she traveled often while teaching Spanish, accompanying her students on trips to Mexico, Spain and Costa Rica. She also served as coordinator of the Amity Scholar program for 10 years, a program where Spanish, French and German students came to Brainerd to live with host families. This program also was cut from the school district. When she travels, she looks forward to visiting with those Amity Scholars whom she's stayed in contact with.

Edith Alvarez

Age: 64.

Residence: Nisswa.

Occupation: She retired in 2006 after teaching Spanish at Brainerd High School for 20 years.

Family: She has a son, Enrique, 34; and a daughter, Elizabeth, 33, who has two children, Noah, 3, and Dianah, 1. Both her children are doctors and are married to doctors.

Have bag, will travel: Alvarez loves to travel, particularly back to Spain, where she lived for several years. She went on a tour to South America in January, spending time in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile and Peru and is planning a trip to Israel and Egypt with her sister in September. They plan to visit the Valley of the Kings, the Great Pyramids and follow the route of Moses when he led the Israelites of out Egypt.

She'd love to visit: New Zealand. I've just heard the countryside is really varied and lovely, said Alvarez.

Favorite authors: John Grisham, David Baldacci and P.T. Deutermann.

Favorite music: She enjoys Il Divo, Andrea Bocelli and generally male singers who sing in other languages, like Italian.

If you have a suggestion for an Everyday People feature, contact Kathi Nagorski at kathi. nagorski@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5859.

Alvarez majored in Spanish and secondary education with a minor in psychology, at Wheaton College in Illinois. She had taken Latin in high school but decided to major in Spanish because she felt it was the most practical language for her to learn. She spent her junior year attending college at the University of Madrid in Spain, where she met her ex-husband, Enrique, who was a medical student. She returned to Wheaton to finish her undergraduate degree. Alvarez sent a letter to her former high school in Bismarck asking if they had any job openings. The superintendent sent her back a teaching contract - no interview was needed. She taught for two years and then moved to North Carolina where her ex-husband was fulfilling his residency. She decided to return to college, attending the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, earning master's degrees in both social work and special education and a Ph.D. in school psychology while also raising their small children.

"I love school," said Alvarez. "What's not to love?"

The family spent 13 years living in North Carolina and then moved for five years to Avila, Spain, where her ex-husband served as director of a psychiatric hospital. After her divorce, she moved back to Bismarck during the summer of 1986 and submitted her resume to the local job service.

In a twist, former Brainerd Superintendent Bob Gross and his wife happened to be in Bismarck and Gross stopped in at the job service to check out teaching applicants. BHS needed a Spanish teacher and Gross called Alvarez and asked to meet with her.

Alvarez hadn't ever heard of Brainerd. She also was leaving the next day for a job interview in New Hampshire. But when Gross offered her the job, she didn't make her flight.

Alvarez tries to return to Spain to visit friends every two years and she enjoys traveling with friends and her sister, who lives in Arizona. She has remained active during retirement, so much so that the projects she planned to finish when she retired, like a needlepoint wall hanging she's been working on for 25 years, remain unfinished.

Alvarez is active at First Presbyterian Church in Brainerd and its Minnesota Valleys Presbytery. She serves as chair of her church's mission committee and sits on the Presbytery's International Partnerships Task Force, where for the past five years they've focused on installing water purification systems in Guatemala. She's been on six of those mission trips, serving as an interpreter. She also translates documents for the group as well.

She's been on many trips and in January was in Chile just a week before the earthquakes. On the same trip she also dodged the mudslides in Peru and was unable to visit Machu Picchu because of the landslides. Many tourists were stranded because of all the rain and mudslides and some tourists were killed at Machu Picchu. Alvarez said she felt fortunate that her tour group was turned around before traveling to Machu Picchu as the flooding worsened. Still, someday she would like to visit the ancient Inca ruins.

Alvarez sings in her church and community choirs, enjoys playing the piano, going to music concerts and most recently has been knitting prayer shawls that are sent to Presbyterian missions throughout the world. She's also knitted infant caps for similar missions.

And little by little, in between travels, she is attempting to finish that needlepoint wall hanging she started 25 years ago.

JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.