For 31 years, world languages department chair Arnaldo Rodriguex has taken Saratoga exchange students to Cuernavaca, Mexico; this year, Mexican students from the “City of Eternal Spring” will finally return the visit.

Twelve to 15 high school students from the Universidad Internacional in Cuernavaca will visit for two weeks in October and possibly mark the beginning of a new tradition.

“What I would like to see in the future is to become a sister school,” Rodriguex said. “The more we know about other people, the better we can fit in the world.”

According to Rodriguex, the exchange will certainly be “an eye-opener” for both schools.

“Getting to know kids your age and just spending time with each other, finding out that kids are kids all over the world… That’s the way we break stereotypes and barriers,” Rodriguex said.

La tradición

In 1967, the American Field Service, an organization that specializes in exchange programs, sent a young Costa Rican student to Mayfair High in Lakewood, Calif.

For his second semester, the teenager arrived for the first time in the San Jose region, where he would later attend university.

Today, he teaches Spanish at Saratoga and arranges the annual trip to Mexico.

“I really enjoyed my experience as an exchange student,” Rodriguex said. “It’s never easy, but obviously I enjoyed it, ‘cause now I’m here.”

According to Rodriguex, his year abroad exposed him to aspects of society that he had never witnessed before.

“I had not really dealt with discrimination. My country didn’t teach me that,” Rodriguex said. “Where I went, the Hispanics were here, the blacks were there, and the Caucasians were there, and there were fights all the time between them. It was a huge eye-opener for me to see what was going on.”

Invaluable lessons like this one motivated Rodriguex to present his own students with the same opportunity.

For four decades, he has fostered relationships with institutes in various Latin American countries.

“That’s one thing I’ve always done as a teacher,” Rodriguex said. “Ever since I started working at this district, I’ve taken groups of kids every single year. I’m pretty interested in having my students here share with kids from Hispanic countries.”

In addition to taking students abroad, Rodriguex has often invited students from Chile and Costa Rica to Saratoga.

“Sometimes it’s hard to bring [foreign students] here every single year,” Rodriguex said. The most recent visitors came three years ago from Costa Rica.

Senior Viraj Parmar, who hosted one of the Costa Rican students, remembers gaining “a real-life window into another culture.”

“I would introduce [Cristian Salazar] to one of my friends, and he’d kiss her on the cheek,” Parmar recalls. “She’d be taken aback, and he would get confused.”

According to Parmar, Salazar also noted differences in the way American classes were conducted.

“He felt like the general setting of the classroom was more rigid and the interactions between teachers and students were not very open,” Parmar said.

¡Bailemos!

When Parmar visited Cuernavaca in February, his own faux pas gave him an idea of how Salazar might have felt.

“When my peers at the school offered me a snack and I politely declined, they would get extremely offended,” Parmar said. “They would take it as some sort of personal attack, which I’m not used to here in America.”

This year, when 45 Saratoga students arrived in Cuernavaca, they took an exam to determine their Spanish-speaking level. Because of their high performance, Parmar and senior Ivan Lee joined Mexican juniors and seniors, whereas others attended classes with younger students.

“The group Ivan and I joined was in a phase where they specialize right before going college,” Parmar said. “I was in the social humanities track, and the highlight of my experience was learning Greek in an etymology class.”

However, curriculum was not the only aspect that surprised Parmar. Like Salazar, he also discovered a large disparity in the teaching style.

“Students and teachers would openly share stories and feelings with the class and seek advice,” Parmar said. “If people saw this sort of thing in America, they’d immediately think it to be a counseling session as opposed to a school.”

According to Parmar, he found himself “highly impressed with this open environment” and even “thought America was inferior in that sense.”

“But then I considered the fact that the students were basically homogeneous,” Parmar said. “So that kind of openness is much more easy in a place like Mexico. It made me realize how different demographics can affect the culture of different countries.”

Junior Shireen Kaul also appreciated the openness of her Mexican classmates. After she sang Adele’s “Someone like you” with senior Shayda Khorasani at a talent show toward the end of the trip, many of Kaul’s new friends gave her warm compliments.

“They were really, really sweet, very well-mannered, and they weren’t exclusive,” Kaul said. “They would come up and be like, ‘Can we take a picture with you?’ Now, we’re all friends on Facebook.”

During the outdoor fiesta that followed the talent show, Mexican and exchange students alike began dancing to “Party Rock” by Lmfao. A group of Mexican students then tried to teach their American peers popular line dances.

“I love to dance, and I think the dance is the best way to communicate,” Mexican student Paolo Morales said. “[It] does not matter, the languages.”

The dance also offered Saratoga students an opportunity to test the skills they had learned in their two salsa lessons.

“I was so ecstatic to see some of our kids dancing salsa with the Mexican students,” Rodriguex said. “I remember seeing [senior] Linus Johansson just dancing so well with this Mexican girl and I was overwhelmed with happiness. All of them were just out there, just screaming and singing and dancing.”

The feeling of unity between the exchange students and their hosts impressed Kaul immensely.

“The Mexicans were trying to teach us this dance, and we did it. We were all together,” Kaul said. “A teacher did ‘La Bamba’ and other songs we learned in middle school, so we could sing with the kids in one big group.”

Octubre, 2012

On their last day of class at Cuernavaca, Saratoga students presented their projects as Mexican buddies cheered them on.

“They already had connections,” Rodriguex said. Meeting teenagers from another country allowed students of both nationalities to “break a lot of barriers.”

“Most of the kids had changed. Most of them come back with a different concept of the world,” Rodriguex said. “Traveling is a school itself.”

Rodriguex hopes the students who come in October will enjoy an equally illuminating experience and an equally welcoming student body. Kaul would love to host a visitor, and students like Morales have already expressed their desire to come.

“Of course!” Morales said. “I learned a lot of things, but most important is we are not too different. I miss my American friends, and I want to know Saratoga.”

Parmar, who has participated twice on the trip to Cuernavaca, believes that inviting students from the Universidad Internacional will not only allow Saratoga to “give back” but also “encourage us to keep in touch with them and maintain relationships.”

“We won’t any longer feel like it’s a one time thing, where we meet them, practice our Spanish and then say goodbye,” Parmar said.

According to Parmar, the exchange in October also reflects the globalization of the world.

“America is not the sole exporter of ideas. The culture of Mexico can find a place in America as well,” Parmar said. “The relationship between Saratoga and Universidad Internacional can be one step in the right direction.”

Rodriguex agrees that cultural exchanges promote international understanding.

“The music that they like is similar. The movies they like, similar. We learn to to live with each other and understand each other,” Rodriguex said. “At the end of the day, we’re all people!”