The miracle in Mexico.

Miracle

"An accomplishment or occurrence so outstanding or unusual as to seem beyond human capability or endeavor; a wonderful thing worthy of admiration."

--Webster's Third New International Dictonary of the English Language. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 2002.

"An extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment" --Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Company, 1977.

Miracles are exciting

You sing some nice children's songs in kindergarten, and that s it," piano teacher Beatriz Ibarra de Munoz points out to me, suggesting that the kind of music education so many middle-to upper-class Americans take for granted, does not exist in the public schools in Mexico.

Munoz and her colleagues are part of the growing group of women who have undertaken a project in which the long-term goal is nothing less than the restructuring of Mexican life and the elimination of poverty through education, culture and health care. During my visit to Mexico, I had the privilege of teaching piano at the Imagina School in Leon, witnessing a miracle in one of Mexico's worst ghettos.

The road from the airport to Leon is a hustling-bustling, well-traveled highway, crowded with trucks spewing dust everywhere. Leon, a city of several million people, is a two-hour drive from Mexico City in the state of Guanajuato. (1) Nestled against a steep hill on the outskirts of this busy metropolis, approximately 30 miles from the exact geographic center of Mexico, is the neighborhood of El Castillo Azul, the blue castle, an unlikely name for one of Leon's poorest areas and the home of about 17,000 people.

There is one paved road in El Castillo Azul and it is only five years old. Here, there are homes without electricity, running water or toilets. The average income is $4 a day, the average public school student drops out by the third grade, and the typical home is one room with one mattress for six or more children.

The drive to El Castillo Azul winds around amidst the day's harsh traffic. Horns are blaring along with an occasional siren. The dry, oppressive heat mixes with dust that the wind blows evenly over all the eye can see. It adds a film, which sometimes floats in small swirls several inches above the unpaved road. Dogs are ever-present and the men sit listlessly beside the road, watching the day pass. Farthest up the big hill in El Castillo Azul, the poorest families are to be found.

We pulled up beside the Imagina School and climbed out of the clean white van. I felt the dust everywhere, especially around my feet and inside my shoes. "Just how hot can it get here?" was my foremost thought. Not wanting to wait outside any longer, I felt impatient as the modern security system to the school's entrance was deactivated. As we entered the school, my whole mood changed dramatically. I was immediately surrounded by beauty. The outer concrete walls gave no hint of the calm and color inside this building. A haven has been created within these walls. For an American used to inner city schools, complete with metal detectors and armed guards, the surprise was no less than shocking. I stood in amazement, unable to move while I tried to take it all in.

The inner doors are wood, beautifully painted to announce their function. Shelves filled with books for children adorn the walls, with one section of an L-shaped room reserved for computers. There is a play area for the youngest children, decorated with color and style, which inspires a mood of comfort and safety. The theater, located in a different section of the building, displays evidence of the most recent performance. Drama, dance and musical performances are given on this stage. I was especially appreciative of the modern bathrooms, which were spotlessly clean. Where were the dirt and dust now?

The Centro Comunitario Virgin La Paz or Central Community Virgin of Peace is the umbrella name of an idea that began in 1973. Also known as AMSIE the Asociacion Mexicana para la Superacion Infantil de la Familia (Mexican Association for the Improvement of Children and the Family), is a comprehensive community center that presently includes classes for both men and women, including literacy, carpentry, metal work, computers, business training and support, courses for new mothers, sewing, cooking, aerobics, yoga and Tae Kwon Do. There is also a library and music and theater classes, a pre-K and afterschool program for children, counseling and couples therapy, a senior citizen day care center and a health care clinic. (2) Imagina is the children's division of the AMSIF project, encompassing the pre-school and after-school programs, along with the library, the music and theater classes) From this beginning, the AMSIF has emerged as a force of hope and direction.

As I entered the music room, the home of the new music section of the Imagina School, I noticed a small group of parents with their children quietly waiting. Each child was dressed in his or her Sunday best. There was a large "welcome" sign posted on the wall. Realizing it was meant for me, I smiled and turned. On the adjacent wall were handwritten letters and pictures from the students themselves, thanking me for my visit. When I turned once more, the group had grown larger. The mothers and students gathered within the classroom. Fathers, equally curious, but shy, waited inside the building but outside the music room, hesitant to intrude. The fathers had the widest eyes of all. All this for the visiting American music professor from Texas!

The music room is fairly large, roomy enough for the eight Yamaha keyboards, which hug three of the walls. Gifts from the School's founder, Arena de Orozco, each keyboard is set in a beautifully detailed wooden case built by the fathers in the carpentry classes. The mothers have embroidered handmade cloth covers for the two acoustic spinets, given to the school by Orozco and patron, Eugenia de Espinoza. One spinet is in one corner of the large room; the second piano is in a tiny, cramped room just off the larger one. An American might assume it was meant to be the closet, but it serves as the office and a studio for private lessons. Back in the larger room, groups of students practice simultaneously, and with no soundproofing the cacophony, at times, is unsettling. Earphones for the keyboards would lessen the problem. When the two rooms are used for teaching at the same time, it is a challenge for everyone.

One of the walls that holds the keyboards faces the outside. Its windows, with meshed metal, are kept open to allow the dust-filled air to enter. These windows represent the only inner sign of the impoverished outside boundary of the Imagina School building. The early-June heat is oppressive inside the music room. The Saturday of my visit was no exception. There was no air conditioning, a continuing reminder of the limitations of the budget. However, no one complained.

By 10 A.M. the music had begun. That Saturday, I heard 17 children play their prepared lessons. And prepared they were. I was, however, totally unprepared for the high level of concentration and discipline, which I witnessed that day. Most of the children played classical selections. From seven-year-old Saul, who played Franz Schubert's March Militaire, to Maria Isabel and her rendition of Johannes Brahms' Lullaby, eleven-year-old Sandra, who played Beethoven's Ode to Joy and the Mexican Birthday Song, Las Mananitas, and the young man who played the excerpt from Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, the level was unexpectedly outstanding. Not one student stumbled during their performance, even though some exhibited a certain amount of nervousness.

At the helm of the AMSIF project is Orozco, the matriarch of the anything-but-typical Orozco family. Orozco believes in education and health care for everyone. This intelligent, quiet, soft spoken woman of deep religious faith, combines a steely determined perseverance intertwined with words of patience and compassion to achieve her goals. AMSIF is the direct result of her tireless work; she has given her financial backing and her time both as a teacher and a facilitator inspiring others to volunteer.

With her husband's constant support, Orozco earned her own degree in theology from the Universidad Ibero Americana, while simultaneously overseeing the education of her eight children. Approximately 32 years ago, she started teaching the men in her husband's factory to read. When they asked if their wives could learn too, the classes grew, using an extra room in the factory.

It was a long, arduous process that built AMSIF. Orozco's great gift is her unending patience, her unfailing courtesy, an absolute refusal to accept the word "no" and the ability to inspire others to help. Often, with purposeful, polite persistence, she has enabled others to share her vision. In 1998, Mexican President Vincente Fox was governor of Guanajuato. Now nicknamed the "education" president, Fox's current support of the AMSIF project dates from his 1998 visit to El Castillo Azul for the groundbreaking ceremony of a church and a new school in El Castillo Azul, called "Imagina." (4)

When Orozco first began her work in El Castillo Azul, she was told she was crazy and she might even be killed. As in sections of most modern cities, drug dealers and addicts flourished in El Castillo Azul in the past. Nevertheless, after seeing the gargantuan hopelessness and destitution, she decided it was necessary to give back to society some of the blessings she had been given. This has been the primary motivation for her teaching and volunteer effort. She has often been a daily visitor to the neighborhood.

Orozco's family and children are a vital part of the team that supports the AMSIF project. With a commitment to the continuation of this work and the ongoing legacy of their mother, each of Orozco's children contributes in different ways. Some family members simply baby-sit the children or provide dinner, while others teach or fundraise. Eldest daughter, Lulis Camarena, now living with her husband in Florida, founded the Biblioteca Imagina and continues to arrange for supplies for the library and school. She also organizes fundraising efforts in the United States. Equally dedicated is her husband, Herman Camarena, who arranged for Apple Computer to donate computers for the library.

Another of Orozco's daughters is Ana Maria Orozco de Fernandez. The fledgling music branch of the Imagina School is one of the major areas of her concern. Like her mother, this outwardly petite, elegant woman belies the underlying strength and passion that she brings to her work. In 2003, she left the United States after a period of living in Houston, Texas, to return to Leon. She missed her piano lessons back in Texas, where her teacher, Diane Delk, NCTM, maintains a thriving piano studio with approximately 50 students in north Houston, at The Woodlands.

Delk, a highly respected music teacher in Texas and a longtime member of MTNA and Texas MTA, began her studio in 1987, after the completion of a music degree at Baylor University. In 2003, she already knew of the AMSIF and the work of Fernandez's mother. When Fernandez suggested that Delk teach once a month in Leon, she agreed, and the music department of the Imagina School was born.

Delk's first trip to Mexico occurred in August 2003. Since that time she and Fernandez have facilitated a music program for children who would never have had such an opportunity before. Accepting no profit from her monthly trips to Mexico, Delk oversees the instruction of all piano students and works to train new piano teachers. On any given visit, she will hear each piano student for about 15 minutes and then will administer their next month's assignment.

In March 2004, Munoz joined with Fernandez to teach piano students between Delk's visits. With further volunteer efforts of Socorro Sanchez, one of the mothers, there are now three regular piano teachers who work with students. All passionately dedicated to the musical education of these children, Delk trains Munoz and Fernandez. In turn, Munoz is training Sanchez, who had never learned piano before, to work with the beginners.

Fernandez prepares the music theory curriculum and administers the musical instruments. (5) In addition, she raises public awareness through public relations and the media. A recent video describing the school is being shown throughout Mexico and the United States. She is also writing a complete description of the work in El Castillo Azul, for the Imagina website, with the goal of sharing the information as a model for other communities to begin similar undertakings.

Students from low economic backgrounds are not supposed to thrive and excel or so goes the established educational rhetoric. During my visit to El Castillo Azul, I saw that assumption refuted. These students, who, on June 4, 2005, demonstrated the work they had completed during the previous month, were all ready to perform!

Most had far too many songs learned for the time allowed. Several had completed 20 songs in the month's period, with others having finished six to seven. Most of the students I heard were beginners; none had studied more than one year. There were some who had completed several months' instruction and others who had studied at Imagina one to two months. Twelve-year-old Arturo, a brilliant child, understood the concept of musical transposition within minutes.

Imaginas youngest student is Tanya, a charming, personable five-year-old, with a determined spirit. Noticing, as the morning progressed, that she had been sitting quietly in the comer with her mother for at least three hours, I asked why she had not played for me yet. "There is only time for you to hear those who have taken the class a minimum of one month," was the teacher's honest reply. With perhaps three or four more of the beginners waiting to play, I made the executive decision to stop everything and brought little Tanya over to the piano. This eager five-year-old played her piece, with eyes all aglow. She was as beautifully prepared as the other students and performed her piece with confidence and joy. Tanya and her mother thought nothing of waiting all day, if needed, to have her 15 minutes with the teacher from the north. They were a shining light of this day.

Miguel Espinoza Chavez, 15, talented, quiet and well-mannered, is Imaginas most advanced piano student. October 2003 was his first month at Imagina. When I heard him play on this searingly hot day in June 2005, it was the Chopin B-flat Minor Scherzo. In exchange for his monthly lessons with Delk, he assists with the younger students. Thanks to the MusicLink Foundation and Executive Director Joanne Haroutounian, Chavez performed on July 16, 2005, at the MusicLink National Summit on the campus at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia. MusicLink provided funding for Chavez to study at a music camp at Sam Houston State University and then to perform at the Summit. (6)

Chavez's mother, violinist Patricia Chavez is the violin teacher. A violinist in the Orquestra Sinfonica de Guanajuato, Patricia drives the hour-long distance from her home in the city of Guanajuato to teach violin classes at Imagina. Suzuki classes began in January 2005. There are presently two classes with eight students per class. Imagina owns 11 violins: Munoz donated two; the Suzuki American Association donated one; and eight of the 14 donated by the Connecticut-based Nutmeg Ensemble, a group of violin students of Amy Longsinger, went to the Imagina School; the other six violins were gifts to the violin program in nearby Guanajuato.

A member of MTNA, Longsinger arranged for the Nutmeg Ensemble's series of benefit performances that raised enough money to purchase seven violins. When the owner of Eastman Strings learned of the purpose behind the purchase, he matched the seven violins with seven more. There are at least three more violins in the United States waiting to be sent to Mexico.

During my visit to Mexico and the Imagina School, I did not see any sign of hopelessness or despair. While I did witness the continuing poverty with plenty of work still to be accomplished, it was clear from the faces of the students I taught, their equally attentive parents and the resolve of Orozco's family and other volunteers, that there is a ray of hope in El Castillo Azul. This hope has transferred from Orozco and the team of volunteers to the members of the neighborhood. There, a determined community is replacing much of the desperation.

NOTES

(1.) Guanajuato is the name of the state in Mexico where Leon is located; it is also the name of another city in the same region, about 30 miles away from Leon.

(2.) Lack of health care for the residents of El Castillo Azul was the impetus for the clinic and wellness center, a major aspect of AMSIE A doctor volunteers time every morning at the clinic and a dentist volunteers often. There is also a volunteer psychologist from the School of Psychology at the University in Leon, a nutritionist and alternative medicine practitioners including three homeopaths. All are volunteers, whose expenses are underwritten by Orozco, the AMSIF founder. Patients to the clinic do pay on a sliding scale. Each visit is $3, which goes directly to offset the expenses of the volunteer staff. If a patient cannot afford the lee, it is waived and emergency service is provided, often at no lee. Likewise, medicine is free if the patient has no money. All health and education services are under the complete sanction of the Mexican government and in addition, education services are fully accredited by SEP, the Mexican Public School System.

(3.) The library, Biblioteca Imagina, is the scene of school-age children receiving tutoring with their homework. With the population of El Castillo Azul at 17,000, an average of 4,000 to 5,000 children from this neighborhood are visiting the library each month.

(4.) Parents of children attending Imagina built the buildings, while architect, Mario Pineda, designed those buildings for expenses only and other groups donated more land. Like all the AMSIF personnel, teachers at Imagina are volunteers, and many are parents of students at the school. Several staff members are paid, including Imaging's director, the cleaning staff and a security guard.

(5.) It is important to note that it is the school policy that Imagina students do not take any musical instruments home. Aware of the domestic circumstances surrounding most students, they are encouraged to come to the school daily, where they can practice their music lessons.

(6.) MusicLink Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing long-term musical training to promising children in financial need. MusicLink believes anyone who has musical potential should be given the opportunity to nurture this musical promise to its full extent. The Foundation identifies these students and links them with professional music teachers who provide ongoing partial-to-full scholarship lessons. It has been extremely supportive of the work at Imagina.

Several groups have been instrumental in enabling the Imagina Music School to grow. Both Hall's Family Music in The Woodlands and The Music Rock in Spring, Texas, regularly donate music to the school in Leon. During 2004-2005, The Pan American Round Table of Conroe, part of Pan American Round Table International, which has a permanent seat on the Organization of American States, donated $500 to Imagina Music School. This funding paid for the materials and wood for the keyboard cases.

This article is the result of my visit to the Imagina School in Leon, Mexico, the first weekend of June 2005. (1) During my sojourn there, I heard 17 piano students play for approximately 15 minutes each. I worked with Miguel Espinosa Chavez, the most advanced music student at Imagina, for more than one hour. Beatriz Ibarra de Munoz graciously translated for all the lessons. I traveled through the ghetto of El Castillo Azul, which is within the Leon city limits, witnessing for myself much of the work that is the ongoing project of the AMSIF, the Asociacion Mexicana para la Superacion Infantil de la Familia (Mexican Association for the Improvement of Children and the Family).

There were many who contributed to the success of my visit. Special thanks go to the children and parents of the Imagina School, who showered me with their warm welcome, and to the five children of Ana Maria Orozco de Fernandez, who at a young age, already know how to surround a guest with kindness. Most of all, gratitude goes to Fernandez and Diane Delk, NCTM, for allowing me to share their musical miracle, and to Arena de Orozco, the Imagina School's founder, for her unending inspiration and patience.

Access to private music instruction is nor as readily available in Mexico as it is in the United States, although it is now developing as an option for some families. In addition, it is difficult for professional Mexican music teachers to communicate their need for a decent fee. While music lessons are an integral part of life for many American children, the women at the Imagina School are working hard to make this happen for an ever-widening group of Mexican children. They have a vision that soon, quality music instruction will be more available throughout Mexico. Fortunately, they are not alone. This project is expanding at a fast pace. Today, there is no organized music teachers association of any kind in Mexico, but these dedicated music teachers have adopted a five-year plan to implement a Mexican Music Teachers Association before the next decade is over.

Leslie Spotz

NOTE

(1.) "Imagina" means "imagine" in Spanish.

Leslie Spotz, piano faculty at Tarleton State University, enjoys an international solo career that has included performances at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, South Bank Center of London, Kennedy Center and the inaugural opening of Philadelphia's Kimmel Center.

BONUS BYTE

For information on contacting the organizations in this article, go to the MTNA website at www.mtna.org and click on AMT. From the drop down menu, select "Bonus Bytes."