The Literacy Review - Gallatin School of Individualized Study - New ...

I Am the Hero
Irene Laos
116 Overcoming
When I look at the people surrounding me, I cannot find an everyday hero better
than myself. I came here five years ago with my husband and my children. Nobody
knew English. My children came here when my first child was 15 and the second one
was nine years old.
One week after arrival, they began school. My husband found a job quickly, and we
lived in a basement. We didn’t have anything. One day, we were going to Roosevelt
Avenue. We were looking for a language institute to study English, but it was too
expensive. Then I saw a sign that said “Help Wanted” to pass out flyers, but it was too far
from my house in Glendale.
A week later, I came back to the job, and I got it. It was to give flyers to people to
inform them about English classes. My job required me to stand up for eight hours in
the street with a lot of cold or heat, with rain or snow. When it was too cold, I wore three
pairs of pants. I worked there because they gave me a half scholarship to study English.
To arrive at my job, I had to go to Queens Boulevard by bus and I had to walk 20 blocks,
then I studied for two hours and then I started work.
After eight hours of standing up, I had to go back home, walking another 20 blocks
and taking two buses. When I arrived at my house, it was 8 p.m. and I had to cook. Then
I helped my children with the little English that I knew. Since I didn’t have a translator
machine, I had to look at the old Spanish-English dictionary to translate many words. I
tried to help them, so that they wouldn’t stay behind. Then I cleaned the kitchen and
went to sleep for a little bit.
When I closed my eyes, the alarm clock song rang. I had to get up to begin one
more day in hell, standing up all day and then learning some English. My husband
worked at night in a bar, and I worked in the morning. We didn’t see each other much
because of our working schedule. If we did see each other, it was to give each other the
Metrocard.
Today my older son is 20 years old and he is in college
and the younger one is 14 and he is in high school. Now,
can you tell me if I am everyday hero or not?
Irene Laos, originally from Peru, has lived in New York City
for five years. She writes, “I still study English, and I work in
a pharmacy very near my house. I can practice my English
all day because I work with people from India and nobody
speaks Spanish there.” She studies at Hunter College in
the SPELL program. Her teacher is Gale Shangold, and the
director of the program is Lauretta Goforth.