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The
Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
June 9 - June 15, 2005 Edition
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Student exchange bridges distance to Vieques June 9, 2005 By Duncan Pickard
“We found that we had more in common than we thought, all living on an island,” said Mary Liz van Nes, a sophomore. “They told us that they felt isolated on the island, which is exactly the way we feel sometimes. Despite the long distance, we are really not that different.” The visit was organized in part by Marianne Larned, the founder of the Vieques Youth Initiative and author of “Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Everyday Heroes.” Her well-known book describes extraordinary acts of kindness from many people around the world. Lynn Ditchfield and Sheila Friedman, MVRHS Spanish teachers, organized the Vineyard end of the trip. The Vineyard students, all students of Spanish, visited the youth group as a part of their weeklong educational trip to Puerto Rico. Vieques is an island similar in size to Martha’s Vineyard with a year-round population of 10,000 living over about 50 square miles of land. The island has its own legislative system and is supervised by a mayor. The island’s modern history is dominated by the presence of the United States Navy, which annexed more than two-thirds of the island in the early 1940s to use for training and bomb tests. The Navy chased away most of the population to make more room for more bombing. Intense protests from the Viequenesens, escalating in 1999 and 2000, influenced the Navy to evacuate, which they did officially in 2003. “The Navy destroyed much of the island in many different ways,” said Ms. Larned, “including the economic, cultural, and agricultural structure. The effect is hard to judge, but suffice it to say that Vieques was better before the Navy came.” Ms. Ditchfield had followed the situation with the Navy through the news, but found that visiting Vieques and seeing the effect the Navy had on the island and the development of the children made the situation much more real. The year the Navy left, the mayor of Vieques, Damaso Serano, asked Ms. Larned to start a youth group to respond to the profound lack of youth-oriented leadership programming on Vieques. The members of the youth group, at times numbering upwards of 100, attend one of the several elementary, middle, or high schools on the island. “The schools are among the least-funded in the United States,” said Ms. Larned. “Poor funding is yet another problem they must overcome that we are trying to counter by bringing technology to the teen center.” The group has its headquarters in a small and ancient Viequenese-style home overlooking an exquisite beach in Isabella II, the main town on Vieques. “The house was cool and funky,” said Emme Brown, a junior. “It was in a really beautiful location overlooking the water. There were wild chickens and dogs all over the place, and many colorful buildings to see.” The Vineyarders were invited to sing together with the children and Tito Auger, a folk music legend from San Juan. They sang together in Spanish Mr. Auger’s original song, Sueños, written with this youth group. “They showed a real sense of ownership of the song,” said Mary Liz van Nes, MVRHS junior. “It was cool that they had a musical theme behind their project. We could tell they were all affected emotionally by the music.” “They seemed just as shy as we were at first, but then we warmed up to each other,” said Mary Liz. “When we launched the Vieques Youth Leadership Initiative, our first project was to have the kids write down their personal dreams as a source of inspiration for them,” said Ms. Larned. “The program is then built around helping the kids reach their dreams.” “I heard some of my kids go up to the Vineyarders and ask, ‘What is your dream?’” said Ms. Larned. “The Vineyard kids were a little taken aback at first, like they had never been asked before, but that is the imperative question for the world.” “I remember one student, Maria [de los Angeles Alvarado], wants to be a journalist,” said Mary Liz. “Another student [Carmen Rosa] had a tremendous voice. She wants to be a singer.” “Many of our young people aspire to great things, but always keep Vieques in mind,” she said. “If they want to be a doctor, they want to work in a hospital in Vieques. Yesinia Camacho, whom the Vineyarders met, wants to be a teacher so she can return and teach the children of Vieques. Some want to be lawyers so that they can come back to preserve the rights of the Viequenesens. This helps to bring the community back together.” Another one of the Viequenesen students, Julie Ledesma, will study to be a businesswoman in the United States. Cassandra Castillo Cruz, who dreams of being a model, will be attending a fashion show in a few weeks. “It was nice to see the kids comfortable, getting to know each other,” said Ms. Larned. “Sometimes they are embarrassed about their English since they rarely meet kids from the United States. Those that they do see are generally the wealthy that vacation here, so they feel even more separated.” “The exchange was really nice because it was obviously one island community to another,” said Ms. Ditchfield. “The Vineyard kids would mention that they had to take a ferry to leave home, and there was an instant connection. Despite the cultural and language differences, we could be in tune with each other due to this common bond.” “In addition, Vieques and Martha’s Vineyard have a similar pristine beauty, a history rooted in fishing, and strong tourism economies,” she said. “The kids could relate to all of that.” These students were not the first to be drawn into Vieques’ unique similarity to Martha’s Vineyard. Many regional high school graduates have spent time working on Vieques, including Matt Rosenthal and Will Tholen, two former MVRHS students that the Vineyarders met while in Vieques. Mr. Rosenthal was on the island playing music with some of the locals, while Mr. Tholen was living there doing carpentry work. Several other Islanders vacation there or endeavor to start businesses. Other Vineyarders remember Vieques from their years in the Navy, practicing maneuvers from the sea and air. Craig Dripps, MVRHS math teacher, practiced amphibious landings on the same beach that his current students would swim at decades later on their school trip. Michael Halt, West Tisbury School principal and U.S. Marine, also did training on Vieques. Ms. Larned also has a special connection with Martha’s Vineyard, which is where she wrote her book and founded her leadership institute. “The Vineyarders’ visit was significantly emotional for me,” said Ms. Larned. “Our organization got its start on Martha’s Vineyard, so there was a deep sense of completion for me. The exchange between the two islands connected where we started to where we are now.” “It was fascinating to see all the similarities that our two islands share,” said Mary Liz, “but there were also differences. Even though it is a part of the United States, it was like a third-world country. Though we complain about being isolated on an island, they have many more challenges — such as poverty and distance from higher educational institutions — which they must deal with. It puts our inconveniences of isolation in perspective. The first step, however, is to have a dream, and they are well on their way to achieving them.” Duncan Pickard is a Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School junior and co-editor of The High School View student newspaper, published weekly in The Times. |
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