Volume 9, Issue 2 Fall 2014

TAPIT—The Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators

Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators

Please tell us about where you grew up.

L anguages have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up in

Manhattan, New York City, in a multi-ethnic neighborhood. Our butcher was a German. The barber and the fruit and vegetable storeowners were Italians; the shoemaker was a Greek Cyp-riot; the hand laundry man was Chinese and the dry cleaner spoke Yiddish. When I was eight years old the first Spanish speakers start-ed to arrive in the neighborhood. I was im-

pressed that my new Puerto Rican playmates could speak English and Spanish, so I asked them to teach me Spanish. You can well imag-ine what kind of words they started to teach me!

What was your academic focus in school?

In high school I studied Spanish instead of Latin. I took advanced placement courses in my junior and senior years. At Fordham Uni-versity I majored in Inter-American Relations. The highlight of my academic career took

Member Spotlight: Dennis F. CaffreyMember Spotlight: Dennis F. CaffreyMember Spotlight: Dennis F. Caffrey

D ear TAPIT and TAMIT members,

On behalf of the Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators (TAPIT) and the Tennessee Association of Med-ical Interpreters and Translators (TAMIT), we are pleased to welcome you back to Nashville, TN for the Second TAPIT & TAMIT Joint Confer-ence! If you are a new member, please consider joining us for this year’s phenomenal confer-ence, taking place at the Monroe Carell Jr. Chil-dren’s Hospital at Vanderbilt (MCJCHV.)

Last year for the first time ever, TAPIT and TAMIT joined forces for a joint conference in Memphis, TN. Interpreters and translators from west Tennessee and neighboring states attended and we confirmed the growing pres-ence of the vibrant community of interpreters and translators across the southeast.

This year, we have another exceptional con-ference in store for you!

We’ll start with a tour of the MCJCHV on Fri-day at 3pm, led by Jim Hollender, Associate Hospital Director and Janet Cross, Director of Patient and Family Engagement. This tour will give participants a chance to see different parts of the Children’s Hospital, including Main St. and the Grand Staircase, as well as places like the Emergency Department, the Family Re-source Center and the rooms where our confer-ence will take place. There is a box on your reg-istration form to check if you would like to par-

Letter from the President By Hope Collins

ticipate. This is an amazing opportunity to see firsthand the groundbreaking work be-ing done at MCJCHV!

We are pleased to have Al-varo Vergara-Mery PhD as our keynote speaker. After his amazing presentation at the IMIA conference in Houston, we knew we had to ask him to join us for the TAPIT TAMIT Joint Conference! Please plan to come early on Saturday morning for registra-tion and breakfast so that you don’t miss his eyebrow-raising keynote speech entitled “Interpreting Taboos: Sex, Religion, Death and (Manifestations of) Mental Disorders.”

Visit www.tapit.org and www.tamit.org for more information on additional opportunities. A committee sign-up sheet will also be provid-ed in your package. Please remember to turn it in! Benefits include networking, relationship and resume building and most impressive of all, conference committee members attend the annual conference for FREE!

Both organizations have worked throughout the year to offer ongoing educational opportu-nities, as well as conference planning which in-cludes an array of new topics and speakers. Two of my favorite sessions this year are on DNA terminology and making interpreters and translators laugh! Both Saturday and Sunday are packed with interesting sessions and there

THE TAPIT TIMES

Continued on Page 6

Dennis F. Caffrey

Inside This Issue

Letter from the President By Hope Collins

1

Member Spotlight: Dennis F. Caffrey

1

2014 TAPIT & TAMIT Conference Presentations

2

TAPIT Calendar 2

In the News 3

Winning with Style By Coral Getino

8

Bilingualism as Support for Community Integration and Education By Maria Heerdt

10

Continued on Page 3

THE TAPIT TIMES Page 2

Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators

TAPIT P.O. Box 91116 Nashville, TN 37209 (615) 824-7878 http://www.tapit.org/ info@tapit.org

THE TAPIT TIMES T. Hope Collins

Diane G. H. Kilmer

Robert Cross

Matthew Rehbein

TAPIT President

Managing Editor

Technical Editor

Webmaster

Fall 2014 TAPIT CalendarFall 2014 TAPIT CalendarFall 2014 TAPIT Calendar

September

13-14 TAPIT-TAMIT Annual Conference, Nashville

16 + TN Foreign Language Institute (TFLI) fall classes begin, Nashville

October

5 1st Annual Conference of the International Asso-ciation of Professional Translators and Inter-preters (IAPTI) London, UK

November

5-9 55th Annual ATA Conference, Chicago

2014 TAPIT & TAMIT Joint Conference September 13-14, 2014

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt

Presentations at a Glance: [see further details on workshops and speakers in our online brochure]

INTERPRETATION – GENERAL

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:

Interpreting Taboos: Sex, Religion, Death, and (Manifestations of) Mental Disorders Presented by:

Alvaro Vergara-Mery, PhD, CMI-Spanish -- senior medical interpreter at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, in charge of interpreter education and training, language proficiency, cultural com-petence, translation and curriculum design.

Marisa Gillio -- Certified Medical Interpreter who worked for almost four years at Yale New Haven Hospital providing language access to Spanish speaking patients; currently teaches Medical Spanish at Connecticut University and at Yale University School of Medicine to doctors and residents and has helped to deliver a 60-hour workshop called “Medical Interpreter and Cultural Broker Training” to train the refugees to work as interpreters for their own communities.

Edurne Chopeitia --Licensed Psychologist in Uruguay holding certifications in postnatal and childbirth education. She is currently finishing a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in the USA. Edurne, ATA Certified, is employed as a translator, healthcare interpreter and trainer, and is a co-investigator on a phenomenological study on medical interpreting and vicarious trauma.

Making Translators and Interpreters Laugh Presented by: Mark Herman and Ronnie Apter Remote Interpreting Presented by: Ping Cross, CHI

Continued on Page 4

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are sessions beneficial for every interpreter and translator. Please check out the preconference brochure if you haven’t done so yet.

Due to some Vanderbilt-specific restrictions, our exhibitors and sponsors will have the opportunity to address you at the lunch on Saturday (included in your registration), and join us for the Saturday evening event to share information about their products and services. Please be sure to meet and greet them with a big thanks. Their support allows us to continue our an-nual conferences and we want to make them feel welcome!

At TAPIT’s Saturday Business Meeting, you’ll hear reports of accomplishments for the year and we'll vote in and welcome new board members. Committees are vital to the growth and development of our profession and benefit us all the most when we have participation and ideas from members! Please contact one of these committee heads for more information on how you can volunteer your time and improve our organizations:

We hope you will join us Saturday evening for dinner and dancing at the home of Janice S. Rodrí guez, Executive Director of the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute. We will enjoy Haitian cuisine prepared by Lamartine Alvarez from Chez Lama and music by Sam McCrary and the Mix. We have a great evening planned for you all.

Register before the end of August for the early-bird discount! If your organization has multiple members interested in at-tending, please contact me to hear about our group discount.

Hope to see you there!

T. Hope Collins TAPIT President

T. Hope Collins, interpreter of Cape Verdean Crioulo and Portuguese<English translator, works in healthcare administration as Manager of Interpreter Services for Vanderbilt Hospitals and clinics. She is currently serving TAPIT as President, 2014-2016. Hope can be reached at: hope.collins@tapit.org.

EDUCATION Kathy Howell kathy@languageguru.org

HEALTHCARE Kathy Howell kathy@languageguru.org Ping Cross cels@pingcross.com

COMMUNICATIONS Matt or Waleska Rehbein webmaster@tapit.org Jorge Moscoso jm.languages@yahoo.com

CONFERENCE Hope Collins hope.collins@tapit.org Constantina Fronimos-Baldwin theowlgirl@yahoo.com.ar

NOMINATIONS/ ELECTIONS

Juan Randazzo jbrandazzo@gmail.com

ADVOCACY Sandra Jacome adam5619@gmail.com

LANGUAGES OTHER THAN SPANISH

Mon Timsina mon.timsina@yahoo.com

Letter from the President (continued from Page 1)

Tennessee’s courtroom interpreter program has been ranked sixth in the nation by Cardozo School of Law’s Nation-al Center for Access to Justice. In Tennessee, the Administrative Office of the Courts assists in finding interpreters for any court participant who has a

limited ability to speak or understand English. According to the office, the interpreter program includes a new pilot project in Sumner County in which interpreters

provide language assistance by video conference rather than traveling to the courtroom. Administrative Office of the Courts Director Bill Young said in a news release that the recognition from Cardozo is the

culmination of years of hard work by people who recognized that justice requires courtroom participants to fully under-stand the proceedings. The full report is available at http://www.justiceindex.org/findings/language-assistance or you can read more at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/23/tennessee-ranked-6th-for-courtroom-interpreters/#ixzz308sbD1LK.

A $3 million wrongful death lawsuit is accusing a 9-1-1 Spanish-language interpreter of mistranslating an address and sending an ambulance to the wrong location as a 25-year-old woman was struggling for air from a cardiac arrest. Read more at: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/04/spanish_interpreter_botched_9-.html.

In the NewsIn the NewsIn the News

THE TAPIT TIMES Page 4

INTERPRETATION – MEDICAL Certification for Medical Interpreters – From Controversy to Consensus Presented by: Kiara Raazi, MPA, CMI-Spanish Cultural Barriers in Healthcare Settings Presented by: Sammy K. Said, B.A. DNA Techniques and Terminology, Part 1 Presented by: Mike Turbeville, PhD DNA Techniques and Terminology, Part 2 Presented by: Mike Turbeville, PhD Interpreting for Those Living with HIV and AIDS: Sharing Experiences and Educational Concepts Presented by: Thais Miller, CMI-Spanish Interpreting in Mental Health Settings Presented by: Alvaro Vergara-Mery, PhD, CMI-Spanish Interpreting Is (Not) for the Feeble Presented by: Erin Rosales, BA, CPLP Language & Microaggression: Of Victims and Perpetrators Presented by: Edurne Chopeitia, MBA Medical Interpreters in North Carolina: Contrasting the Job Market and Educational Preparation Presented by: Elizabeth Gamino Navigating Health Literacy: Techniques for Healthcare Interpreters Presented by: Andrea Henry Sims, CMI-Spanish and Alison Arevalo-Amador Prepare Yourself for Better Interpreting in Cancer and Bone Marrow Transplant Cases Presented by: Darien Mejia, CMI-Spanish Translating Between the Coasts Terena Bell Understanding Pain Management and the Potential for Abuse: A Prescription for Relief Presented by: Elisa M. Greene, PharmD, BCACP What Is Accreditation of Training Providers? Presented by: Jorge Rudko, BTech, CI

INTERPRETATION – LEGAL A New Spin: Simultaneous Practice, Reimagined Presented by: Karen Bahr and Kelly Varguez

Continued on Page 5

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DNA Techniques and Terminology, Part 1 Presented by: Mike Turbeville, PhD DNA Techniques and Terminology, Part 2 Presented by: Mike Turbeville, PhD Translating Between the Coasts Presented by: Terena Bell Understanding Pain Management and the Potential for Abuse: A Prescription for Relief Presented by: Elisa M. Greene, PharmD, BCACP

TRANSLATION – GENERAL Making Translators and Interpreters Laugh Presented by: Mark Herman and Ronnie Apter

TRANSLATION – MEDICAL

Language & Microaggression: Of Victims and Perpetrators Presented by: Edurne Chopeitia, MBA Translating Between the Coasts Presented by: Terena Bell Understanding Pain Management and the Potential for Abuse: A Prescription for Relief Presented by: Elisa M. Greene, PharmD, BCACP

TRANSLATION – LEGAL

Translating Between the Coasts Presented by: Terena Bell Understanding Pain Management and the Potential for Abuse: A Prescription for Relief Presented by: Elisa M. Greene, PharmD, BCACP

ROUNDTABLE – MEDICAL

Medical Ethical Dilemmas and Challenges Lead by panel of Certified Medical Interpreters/Certified Healthcare Interpreters: Ping Cross, Kathy How-ell, Dennis Caffrey and Constantina Fronimos-Baldwin

ROUNDTABLE – LEGAL

Ethical Dilemmas for Court Interpreters Lead by panel of TN Court Certified Interpreters: Claudia Gomila, Bruni Dopatka and Juan Randazzo

place when I won a State Department scholarship to study for a year at the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile.

When and how did you realize you wanted to be an interpreter or translator?

That year was a major turning point in my life. I was able to visit Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay, as well as travel throughout Chile. By the time I returned to New York City I was fluent in Spanish and knew that I would dedicate the rest of my life to working in and with Latin America.

What is your educational background and did it give you an ad-vantage as a translator?

Following college, I went into the United States Air Force and was sent to West Germany as my first assignment. I de-cided to learn German since I was going to be there for at least three years. I soon met my future wife, Monika, who was working in the same headquarters building. While sta-tioned in Germany I was sent on a temporary duty assign-ment to Spain for two months to be both a translator and interpreter for the largest international airborne exercise since the end of the Second World War. I quickly realized that I liked doing interpreting much more than translating.

There were several language-related highlights during my Air Force career. I taught Spanish and German at the Air Force Academy for four years. That was followed by a 3½ year assignment with the Peruvian Air Force as an ex-change officer. The first year I was a student at the Air Command and Staff Course, and the remainder of the tour I was a faculty member at the Air War College. In that capac-ity I taught classes and developed course materials on a wide variety of subjects, all in Spanish. Another career highlight was my assignment as the Secretary General of the System of Cooperation Among the American Air Forces (SICOFAA), which included 17 different countries. The or-ganization’s official language was Spanish.

THE TAPIT TIMES

Dennis F. Caffrey (continued from Page 1)

Page 6

What brought you to Tennessee in particular?

I retired from the USAF in 1993 and began working from Miami, Florida, as a bilingual consultant in the areas of se-curity and defense in Latin America. In 2001 I became a member of the faculty of the Center for Hemispheric De-fense Studies (CHDS) at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, D.C. The CHDS mission was to serve as an international venue for bilateral and multilateral re-search, communication, and exchange of ideas involving military and civilian participants, focusing on regional se-curity issues. I was not only a professor, but also held key leadership positions. I retired from CHDS in 2008 as the Dean Emeritus of Students, Administration, and Outreach.

After retiring from CHDS, Monika and I decided to move

to Middle Tennessee to be closer to our daughter, Nicole, and her family, who were living in Franklin. We also decid-ed to move here because of the area’s great quality of life. We are very happy living in Murfreesboro, especially since Nicole, her husband and the four grandchildren now live only three miles away!

Please tell us about the translation and interpreting work you do in Tennessee.

The only major translating work I do these days is to oc-casionally review other people’s work as a subject matter expert in security and defense matters. I will also some-times do short English to Spanish translations for the Silo-am Family Health Center where I volunteer as a Spanish medical interpreter two days per week.

During all my years in the Air Force, as a consultant, and at CHDS, I traveled a great deal of the time. Monika rightly complained that I missed many key family and other social events. She would often state: “I can’t wait until you retire and don’t have to travel all the time.”

About four months after we were settled into our new home in Murfreesboro, she began to murmur such things as: “Are you going to be home again all day tomorrow?” and

Continued on Page 7

Visiting German medical interpreters at a refugee center in Southern Germany 2012

Monika, her sister and brother-in-law in Northern Germany 2012

“Don’t you have a trip somewhere?”

Shortly thereafter I saw an announcement for the Kaiser Permanente Medical Interpreter Level 1 Course and thought that might be the solution to my domestic situa-tion.

I currently work as a freelance National Board Certified Spanish<>English Medical Interpreter. I work for a variety of organizations including: Family and Children’s Services, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Language Ser-vices Associates. I also volunteer two days a week at the Si-loam Family Health Center.

How did you get your first job? Your first client? How did you become known?

Not long after I started to volunteer at Siloam, Terry Ea-gleton from Health Assist Tennessee approached me about working for his organization in direct support of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was very persuasive.

How and when did you become a member of TAPIT and any oth-er professional translator/interpreter organizations?

One of the numerous benefits of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Interpreter Course that Marvyn Bacigalupo-Tipps taught was the one-year free membership in TAPIT. That was my introduction to some truly great professionals and to the state of the art of translation and interpretation in Tennessee. I have also become a member of the Interna-tional Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA) and of the Tennessee Association of Medical Interpreters and Transla-tors (TAMIT). I recently became the IMIA Tennessee State Chapter Chair.

While at Vanderbilt University Medical Center I had the opportunity to work with and learn from Cristina Frasier as the Supervisor of Interpreter Services.

My volunteer experience at the faith-based Siloam Fami-ly Health Clinic has had a major influence on my profes-sional development as a medical interpreter. It enables me to interact with a wide variety of medical and behavioral health specialties and other support staff while helping to address one of our country’s greatest health disparities – those individuals without medical insurance.

How did you find out about our organization? What can you tell us about how you have seen the association evolve? What could it do to improve?

It was Marvyn Bacigalupo-Tipps who first told me about TAPIT and strongly encouraged me to join. Marvyn has tru-ly been my mentor, encouraging me to get certified, to be-come an active member of TAPIT (assuming duties as the Treasurer), and helping her to teach the Kaiser Permanente Course.

I have seen TAPIT grow and evolve over these past four years. A natural and very positive evolution has taken place. The original leadership has been replaced and new ideas are being considered.

THE TAPIT TIMES

Dennis F. Caffrey (continued from Page 6)

Page 7

Please add any other comments you would like TAPIT Times readers to know about you, your interests, etc.:

For the last three years I have spent two weeks each June as a volunteer medical interpreter in support of the Emory University Physician Assistant Program’s South Georgia Farmworker Health Project, providing free health care screening to the migrant farmworkers and their families. This year we treated 1,474 individuals.

In March of this year I joined Dr. Elisa Greene, in charge of clinical pharmacy services at Siloam, and a group of Bel-mont University faculty and pharmacy/nursing students on a spring break immersion mission trip to Antigua, Guate-mala. We provided basic health screening and instruction on the Heimlich Maneuver and Cardiopulmonary Resusci-tation to coffee plantation workers and their family mem-bers. We also conducted similar activities at a local school operated by the Education for the Children Foundation.

For several years I have been studying Chinese at the Confucius Institute at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. In 2012 I was able to take a month long im-mersion course at Hangzhou Normal University, southwest of Shanghai. Earlier this year I was awarded a plaque for Second Place, Advanced Level, in the 2014 Chinese Writing Contest.

Dennis F. Caffrey, a freelance Certified Medical Interpreter, has served TAPIT as treasurer and is also a volunteer at the Siloam Family Health Center in Nashville. Contact him at: dencaf@aol.com.

Presenting a report on TAPIT at IMIA Conference 2013

Page 8 THE TAPIT TIMES

F ernando Mexia is a Spanish correspondent who works for EFE. He reports from Los Angeles and his articles are read worldwide. He recently hired my company to translate several of his articles into

English, as he was planning to enter several journalism competitions in the U.S. Several competitions are open to foreign language material, but an English translation has to be provided. Mexia realized he would increase his chances by submitting "the best" possible rendering of his prose, and for that purpose he chose to hire my services.

Literary translation is arguably the most difficult in the field. Not only that, Spanish and English journal-ism texts are so different in style! Attention was to be paid not only to the meaning (message), but also the form (word choice) and overall structure (style) of the article. This was a true challenge to take on. As English is not my native language, I relied on contracted native English colleagues who helped translate and/or edit the work.

We have now worked a total of six articles, in a process that became highly educational for all involved. This collabora-tive synergy--including Spanish - English translator, proofreader, English journalist/editor, and the Spanish author--proved to be a winning formula. Fernando Mexia received the prize for Best Entertainment News or Feature story in the International category at the Southern California (SoCal) Journalism Awards.

His story, "Tarzan reivindica a gritos su lugar en el siglo XXI," published on Aug. 18, 2012, was praised by the judges for "its whiz-bang lead that never lets go throughout." The English translation "Tarzan Reclaims His Place in the 21st Century With A Clamor" is published here for the first time, along with the Spanish original. Enjoy!

Credit: Special thanks to translators Sandra Jácome, Kathy Howell, Christina Adams, and editor Margot Kline, who have worked on various articles.

Dr. Coral Getino, owner of Spanish Language Solutions, is a Certified Court Interpreter and transla-tor based in Knoxville. She is Achieve3000’s Senior Spanish Content Editor. She can be reached at: spanish.language.solutions@gmail.com.

Winning with Style By Coral Getino

Tarzan reclaims his place in the 21st Century--with a clamor

With more enthusiasm than ability, some hoarseness, and an occasional crack in the voice, Tarzan’s followers cele-brated his centennial anniversary by belting out his famous call of the wild—the same one made popular by Johnny Weissmuller in the 1930’s. At the top of their lungs, they claimed the permanence of their hero.

The annual Tarzan Call competition took place in a Los Angeles hotel between a concrete jungle and ornamental palm trees. This is one of the most important events of the “Dum Dum” convention, which year after year reunites the fans of the most popular character created by the novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The modest event symbolized a refusal to let the passing of time silence the legend of the man raised among apes and attired in a simple leather loincloth, who swung from vine to vine.

“He was essentially an ecological warrior. He wanted to protect the trees, the animals, things that we now realize are important, like global warming, which would not have happened if Tarzan were king,” said John Burroughs, grand-son of the author to EFE.

Now 70 years old, John Burroughs remembers how he learned to read with the Tarzan stories. He shares that his temperamental grandfather actually came to tire of the ape man, but the public demanded more stories about him. He also explained that his grandfather endured many accusa-tions by critics.

Tarzán reivindica a gritos su lugar en el siglo XXI

Con ma s entusiasmo que afinacio n, algo de ronquera y algu n gallo, los seguidores de Tarza n festejaron su centena-rio invocando su famosa llamada de la selva, la misma que popularizo Johnny Weissmuller en la de cada de 1930 y con la que hoy reclaman a gritos la vigencia de su he roe.

En un hotel de Los A ngeles, entre una jungla de asfalto y palmeras ornamentales, se celebro el concurso anual de alaridos de Tarza n, uno de los momentos ma s destacados de la convencio n "Dum Dum" que an o tras an o reu ne a los fana ticos del personaje ma s conocido de los creados por el novelista Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Ma s alla de la calidad del sonido, el modesto evento sim-bolizo una llamada de atencio n de quienes se resisten a que el paso del tiempo silencie el legado del hombre criado entre monos y ataviado con un simple taparrabos de piel, que se moví a de liana en liana.

"E l era esencialmente un guerrero ecologista. Querí a proteger los a rboles, los animales, cosas que nos damos cuenta ahora que son importantes, como el calentamiento global, que no habrí an pasado si Tarza n fuera el rey", dijo a Efe el nieto del autor, John Burroughs.

A sus 70 an os, John Burroughs recuerda co mo aprendio a leer con las historias de su temperamental abuelo quien llego a cansarse del hombre mono, que era lo que le de-mandaba el pu blico y las editoriales, y de soportar las acu-saciones de los crí ticos.

Continued on Page 9 Continued on Page 9

Page 9 THE TAPIT TIMES

"Igual que Arthur Conan Doyle estaba forzado a escribir de Sherlock Holmes, e l tení a que hacerlo con Tarza n. Le decí an que estaba en contra de los negros por las matanzas de algunos salvajes en sus libros, pero e l no era un racista", insistio su nieto, que apunto que los personajes de raza negra eran la clase alta en la saga literaria "John Carter of Mars".

Tarza n, que significa "piel blanca" en el lenguaje simio de ficcio n, protagonizo 24 novelas desde que aparecio por primera vez en octubre de 1912 en la revista "The All-Story" con la historia "Tarzan of the Apes: A Romance of the Jungle", y un siglo despue s atesora ma s de 100 millones de copias vendidas.

El he roe selva tico salto del papel a la gran pantalla don-de se le pudo ver en medio centenar de pelí culas, así como en 32 producciones de dibujos animados para la televisio n y en 450 co mics.

Fue Johnny Weissmuller, nadador ganador de cinco oros olí mpicos, quien inmortalizo fí sicamente al personaje que posteriormente encarnaron entre otros Christopher Lam-bert ("Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes", 1984), o Denny Miller, quien en 1959 hizo el "remake" de "Tarzan The Ape Man".

Miller, el Tarza n nu mero doce, tiene hoy 78 an os pero au n tiene fresco en la memoria el divertido el rodaje de aquel filme que resulto muy exigente fí sicamente.

"La mayorí a de los actores que hicieron de Tarza n no solo eran atletas, eran de los mejores en su disciplina. Tuve que nadar, que es algo que hago muy bien, tambie n gritar, pero sonaba como un gato herido así que acabaron editan-do eso y usando el alarido de Johnny Weissmuller", recono-cio Miller a Efe.

Ese veterano actor acudio hoy a la presentacio n del pri-mer sello de correos de EE.UU. en honor de Edgar Rice Bu-rroughs y Tarza n que fue desvelado en el distrito angelino de Tarzana, una zona que tomo su nombre del rancho del autor cuya oficina, un vergel entre el cemento, au n esta en pie. El edificio es actualmente la sede de la empresa Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. (ERB) que gestiona los derechos sobre las novelas y los contenidos derivados como producciones audiovisuales, publicaciones y mercadotecnia.

Su presidente, Jim Sullos, confirmo a Efe que habra nue-vos libros y nuevas pelí culas de Tarza n, la primera vera la luz en 2013 rodada en 3D y con tecnologí a de captura de movimientos, la segunda esta en fase de guion, depende del estudio Warner, y sera de accio n real con su estreno esti-mado para 2014 o 2015.

"Tarza n no es una especie en peligro de extincio n, sus valores son duraderos", afirmo Sullos, para quien el perso-naje representa a alguien de buen corazo n que "es libre y no puede ser corrompido porque no necesita nada".

"Perdio popularidad cuando los antihe roes se hicieron famosos en Hollywood con actores como James Dean, pero ese ciclo esta terminando y puede ser el tiempo para el regreso de un he roe de verdad", afirmo Sullos.

“In the same way that Arthur Conan Doyle was forced to write about Sherlock Holmes, he had to write about Tar-zan. Critics used to to tell him that he was prejudiced against blacks due to the killings of some natives in his books, but he was not racist,” his grandson insisted. He pointed out that black characters were the ruling class in the literary saga John Carter of Mars.

Tarzan, which means “white skin” in the fictitious ape language that Tarzan speaks in the famous books, was pro-tagonist in 24 novels since it first appeared in October 1912. The first story, “Tarzan of the Apes—A Romance of the Jungle,” appeared in the magazine The All-Story. A cen-tury later, that story has sold more than 100,000,000 cop-ies.

The jungle hero soon jumped from the page to the big screen, where he was featured in 50 movies. Tarzan was also the star of 32 television cartoons and 450 comics.

It was John Weissmuller, 5-time Olympic gold-medal swimmer, who physically immortalized the character, al-though the screen role of Tarzan was later played by Chris-topher Lambert (Greystoke: The Lengend of Tarzan, Lord of Apes, 1984) and Denny Miller, who in 1959 did the remake of Tarzan the Ape Man. Miller, Tarzan number 12, is now 78 years old, but still clearly remembers the fun he had shooting that film, which turned out to be very physically demanding.

“Most of the actors who played Tarzan were not just ath-letes; they were the best in their sport. I had to swim, which is something I do well. I also had to yell, but I sound-ed like an injured cat, so they ended up editing that and using Johnny Weissmuller’s call instead,” admitted Miller to EFE.

Miller appeared today at the presentation of the first postage stamp by the U.S. Postal Service in honor of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan. The stamp was unveiled in the Tarzana District of Los Angeles—an area that took its name from the author’s ranch and where the headquarters of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. (ERB) corporation is now locat-ed. This office handles the licensing of the novels and spin-offs, such as audiovisual productions and publications, and marketing.

Jim Sullos, its president, confirmed to EFE that new Tar-zan books and movies are in production, the first of which will be released in 2013 in 3D format and with motion cap-ture technology. The second one is in the script phase, and depending on the Warner Brothers Studio scheduling, is expected to be released as an action movie sometime in 2014 or 2015.

“Tarzan is not an endangered species; his values are ev-erlasting,” said Sullos. To him, Tarzan represents someone with a kind heart who “is free and incorruptible, because he needs nothing.”

“He lost popularity when antiheroes became famous in Hollywood, with actors like James Dean, but that cycle has come full circle, and it could be time for a return of a true hero,” said Sullos.

Tarzán reivindica (continued from Page 8) Tarzan reclaims (continued from Page 8)

Page 10 THE TAPIT TIMES

Bilingualism as Support for Community Integration and Education: A Hispanic-Nashville Experience By Maria Heerdt

T here are many different scenarios in which immigrant and refugee families

experience school culture, and academic challenges.

Working as a Spanish-English interpreter in the Nashville area, and later on, as a volunteer within Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), I often listened to parents express their frustration on two

points. First, at not being able to help their children with their school work, because of their limited knowledge of English, and secondly, at the fact that once their children started learning English at school, it was more and more dif-ficult for them to maintain their home language.

This is certainly not the case for all of our diverse immi-grant and refugee families, but it is particularly true for those first-generation immigrant parents, who are strug-gling to learn English. For every one of these families enter-ing our education system, multiple and complex interactions need to be considered --complexities that, in practice, make it difficult for schools and parents to provide comprehensive solutions.

Many times I have heard it said that immigrants need to learn English as soon as they get here, if not before. Of course, we can and should ask LEP parents to learn English, but as we all know, and some politicians forget, learning an-other language is not, by any means, an easy task.

English classes are offered through many organizations in the Nashville area. In several places ESL classes are offered free of charge or at a low cost. The Metro Human Relations Commission has developed a site (http://www.eslmap.com/) where one can easily find locations and general information about ESL classes in the area. Unfortu-nately, availability is not all that is needed.

Conversing with Spanish-speaking parents of ELL stu-dents, they would talk to me about their long hours at work; about going home to tend to their families, see to dinner, housework, doctors' appointments; their struggle to figure out what their children's homework was about, or how hard it was to decipher the content of the notes teachers and school staff sent home on a daily basis. They needed to learn English, but most of their time and energy was spent on the immediate demands of everyday life.

It seems that, for the short term, English Language profi-ciency is out of reach for many of our Latino immigrant par-ents in Nashville, particularly for those who are more at risk due to poverty, and, in general low socioeconomic status. Furthermore, this very specific group among our immigrant and refugee communities is a significant one within our metropolitan school system.

According to the “LEP Data Brief” by MPI, Tennessee is one of the top 10 states with the highest growth in Lim-ited English Proficiency population, growing more than 280% between 1990 and 2010.

Spanish is the top language spoken by the LEP popula-tion, with a share of 65.5%; Chinese follows in second place with a share of 6.1%

As reported by the Center for Business and Economic Research at UT in their document “Profile of Hispanic Population in the State of Tennessee,” (2012), the top three counties by Hispanic population in Tennessee are Davidson, Shelby and Rutherford.

In the same document, the analysis presented by the authors indicates that not only an increasing number of Hispanic children are enrolling in our metropolitan public schools, but that Hispanic children are more like-ly to live in poverty, and that more than a third of them live in what is called linguistic isolation, with few op-portunities of exposure to the English language.

When facing a scenario such as this, it seems absolutely necessary that the support these parents require within the school system should be expanded through qualified bilin-gual professionals: teachers, tutors, interpreters, community outreach workers, etc. The demands on parents should not rely on their knowledge of English.

We should not expect our LEP parents to be able to effec-tively help their children with their English grammar or phonetics practice; of course they should always be encour-aged to do so within their possibilities, but there are other ways in which parents can be engaged in their children's ed-ucation. In fact it is absolutely necessary that they do, as the research on language learning shows.

Experts say that “Students who have developed a strong L1 [first language] are more likely to acquire proficiency in L2 [second language] than students who did not develop a strong L1 at early years.” Furthermore, there is probably not a no-critical period for [time to begin] learning an L2, but there is a critical period for L1 learning.

Although research on the fundamentals of language acqui-sition is far from complete, many experts agree that if the child has not learned his/her first language at an appropri-ate structural/functional level by approximately age 3, there is likely to be important negative effects for language devel-opment, let alone learning a second language.

If we provide our LEP parents with the training to pro-mote their children's education at home, in their own lan-guage, we would be providing a tool that would have a more immediate positive impact than if we relied only on the re-sults of facilitating ESL classes. There are other very im-

Continued on Page 11

Page 11 THE TAPIT TIMES

portant benefits linked to this approach that I will mention further down.

Parents can use many tools and techniques at home with their young children to promote language acquisition in their home language. Children can develop logical thinking, creative thinking, learn mathematical concepts, in their L1; they can learn to read and write, to sound out letters, to add and subtract; all those skills will transfer into their L2 when they start attending school.

Parents can also awaken in their children the love of learning, they can provide them with a home where schooling is ap-preciated as a privilege and an opportunity; where they learn to respect each other and their educators. This will be better achieved where there are strong and positive relationships within the family, and those can only be maintained if parents and children communicate effectively.

These children need to become bilingual, and they have to do it for reasons that go beyond the cognitive and develop-mental benefits of bilingualism. They need to learn their parents’ language in order to participate in family life, and nurture family ties. These are the important benefits I referred to before, benefits that play a crucial part in community integration at large. When parents actively teach their children in their home language, they are setting the foundation for meaningful relationships. If children lose their home language, it would most likely result in a deterioration in communication, and among other consequences, parents would not be able to present themselves as protectors and guides. A disqualification of parenting could take place from the perspective of children, that would become more acute as adolescence arrives.

Parents have always been children's first teachers, and it stands to reason that what they do (or don't do) in terms of their children's education, or in any area, for that matter, will have important repercussions. Under these premises, perhaps some pertinent questions are: To what degree do our immigrant parents require to be fluent in English to effectively parent their children? Do parents need to be bilingual in order for their children to be academically successful? There are no sim-ple answers.

Maria Heerdt, Hendersonville, TN. Social Psychologist – Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, Spanish< >English healthcare interpreter; can be reached at BESP.TN@gmail.com. Originally from Mexico, Maria graduated from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Mexico City) as a Social Psychologist, with a background in Psychoanalysis. She specializes on mat-ters of bilingual education, multicultural issues and migration.

Bilingualism as Support (continued from Page 10)

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