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 S E P T I E M B R E

 

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1900 - Nace en Chihuahua, México, la soldadera Adela Velarde "La Adelita", destacada activista revolucionaria que se incorpora como enfermera a la Asociación Mexicana de la Cruz Blanca. Muere en Estados Unidos en 1971.

 

 

 

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1907 - Nace la activista política y luchadora social, Benita Galeana, una de las mujeres más importantes del país en el siglo XX. Es encarcelada 58 veces. Muere el 17 de abril de 1995. Siempre estuvo en contra de la injusticia. Reivindicó los derechos de la mujer.

 

 

 

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1909 - Emiliano Zapata es electo presidente de la "Junta de Defensa de la Tierra de Anenecuilco", Morelos, agrupación que lucha por recuperar las tierras arrebatadas a su pueblo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1810 - Descubiertos los conspiradores de Querétaro: doña Josefa Ortíz, Allende, Hidalgo, Aldama, Abasolo y demás compañeros, el cura Hidalgo toma la decisión de lanzarse a la lucha por la libertad e independencia de México.

 

 

 

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1810 - Al amanecer de este día, don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, inicia el movimiento de Independencia de México con gente del pueblo y prisioneros de la cárcel de la localidad. Se encaminan a Guanajuato y a su paso por Atotonilco toman como bandera un estandarte de la virgen Morena. Al atardecer llegan a San Miguel el Grande, donde se les une el Regimiento de la Reyna, con Allende, Aldama, y Abasolo.

 We love our students!!!

Thanks to our alumni (You!) the Spanish Experience Center has grown every year for the last four years.  While other language schools have seen a decline in enrollment over the same period of time, our beautiful and safe location, fantastic faculty and staff and your referrals and continuing enrollment have made us thrive!  And now, all of us from SEC want to say thank you for your support and loyalty to the school by offering the most valuable promotion in our school’s history!  This offer is only for SEC alumni and their families.

When you were at the school, did you ever find yourself thnking that your friend, co-worker, brother, sister, mom, dad or kid would really love this experience?  When you went home after your time in Puerto Vallarta did someone you like say that they wished they’d gone with you?  Well, we are very excited to offer you the chance to make someone’s Summer by inviting them to come with you to Puerto Vallarta for four weeks!  You will each be placed in a class suited to your Spanish level and will be given matching schedules to allow you to spend your time away from SEC together, practicing Spanish and exploring our beautiful city.  Cooking classes, Noche de Guateque, trips, tours and all of the other amazing experiences you remember can be shared with whoever you choose to invite!  You can even bring three friends with you and only pay two tuitions for all four of you!

All of us at the Spanish Experience Center hope to see you this Summer and we are looking forward to once again showing you what our campus, staff and city have to offer you!

Please contact us to reserve your class here. 
 

Director of Academics, Spanish Experience Center

 

 

The Academic Director of the Spanish Experience Center is one of the founding partners in the school and has over a decade of a personal experience teaching Spanish immersion to people from all over the world.  For more than half that time, Maestra Sarai Ramirez has been creating, evaluating and overseeing the evolution of SEC’s curriculum. 

 

Sarai was born in the city of Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos.  The recorded history of Cuernavaca goes back more than 700 years and in pre-Hispanic times, the city’s name was Cuauhnáhuac, which translates to “next to the trees”.  In those days, the name was used to describe the region’s verdant forest, a favorite retreat of the Aztec royalty.  About 200 years after the Aztecs first settled in Mexico, the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés, also fell in love with the region, which by then had been renamed Cuernavaca, also known as the City of Eternal Spring, due to its climate and year round blooming flowers.

 

Sarai was born in the end of sixties, and lived all of her life in Cuernavaca until July of 2005, when she was offered the opportunity to create an academic program and teach Spanish at a new Spanish immersion language school in Puerto Vallarta.  Since Sarai and the rest of the SEC team arrived in Puerto Vallarta, her experiences have continued to add to her understanding of not just her job, but of the great people who come to SEC to learn Spanish.

 

“It has been greatly rewarding to give Spanish classes to, and get to know so many great people from all around the world.  The opportunity to explore and understand other ideologies, cultures and customs have made this the best job in the world and the work is never boring.”

 

With her degree in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language, and over five years experience teaching professionally before coming here, Sarai sculpted the academic programs offered by SEC into the entertaining, effective and relevant program it is today.  Since she was a little girl, Sarai wanted to become a teacher, and in her position of Academic Director, she has become that and much, much more. 

 

The atmosphere of Puerto Vallarta’s city life has been fully embraced by Sarai, “I like Puerto Vallarta very much.  It’s streets, buildings, beautiful views of the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, it’s all lovely, and it’s so green and full of life!”  The palm trees, jungle and nature of Puerto Vallarta make her appreciate living here every day.  “It is a wonderful place to live, the vacationers are always so happy, and there’s so much for them to do to amuse themselves.”

 

Sarai’s own words best describe what teaching Spanish here in Puerto Vallarta has done for her.

 

“I would like to relate an experience I had as a teacher, since coming to the Spanish Experience Center: In one class, I had a student from Canada, one from the United States, one from Switzerland and one from Australia.  It was as if the borders of the world were coming together in Puerto Vallarta.  Here we were, the students and I, having come from all over the world, convening in a single place, and sharing a piece of our lives with each other.  The experience was enriching for all of us, we learned a lot about ourselves and we became closer because of it.”

 

Being a teacher has allowed her to know people from as far away as New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Japan, White Horse (a very remote town in Canada), Lichtenstein, Scotland, England, Germany, Holland, Finland, Brazil, France, Italy and the list goes on.  Best of all, the list will keep growing! 

 

“One of MY favorite days ever in Puerto Vallarta is the first of June, this is the day Mexico celebrates their Navy and the men and women who serve as officers and sailors.  This is an especially big occasion in Puerto Vallarta,    where you might be able to actually go on a ship and speak to the Captain and crew.  This is their day, and hearing Mexico’s Navy choir, each wearing their crisp, white dress uniforms, singing our Navy’s Anthem backed by an amazing philharmonic orchestra always brings me goosebumps.”

 

 

Sarai says her favorite word in Spanish is “colibrí”, which means hummingbird.  “It is a very sweet word and when pronounced, it sounds like music.” 

 

“I feel so very lucky person to have been born in Mexico, it is a wonderful country, with every climate that exists in the world, which creates Mexico’s great variety of natural landscapes. Our history is fascinating, and our people are generous of spirit, warm and loving.”  Perhaps that’s why everyone greets each other with a kiss here in Puerto Vallarta.

 

The whales of Banderas Bay are one of the (many) reasons why I love this town, and the return of the whales each year is one of the things I look forward to most in life.  That's why I was so happy today to see this video posted yesterday.  I had thought the whales were gone until next season, but seeing a mother whale and her calf playing in the bay was such a bonus I had to share it.

 

Wildlife Connection Vallarta, a good friend to the school for many years, offers Banderas Bay's most responsible whale watching tours.  My wife and I had been whale watching with them once when the director of the tour dropped a mike into the water so we could hear the whale's song.  It was incredible.  Then, I noticed a look of cautious optimism spread across his face, followed by a "wait til they hear this" look on his face.  He turned off the speaker and asked us all to remain perfectly still and quiet.  Then, we experienced a simultaneous combination of sound and vibration as the whale came so close to the boat that we could hear it's song without the aid of the microphone.  

 Even more amazing, we could feel the song resonating through the boat and into us.  It gives me goosebumps as I type remembering how it felt.  If you ever hear someone defend whaling to you, please send them to Puerto Vallarta to meet me for a sincere heart-to-heart chat about the whales.

The images above were taken by Eduardo Lugo, an amazing wildlife photographer who frequently works with Wildlife Connection, you can see more of his work on their website here, http://www.wildlifeconnection.com/photogallery/?album=1&gallery=11

And, you can see the video that took me down my whale watching memory lane here!  

Read this great article from Wanda St Hilaire which was published in the Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun on March 2nd: discover how safe and varied Puerto Vallarta is and let us know what is your favorite place or thing to do in the Bay!