After mopping floors and scrubbing toilets, janitor Julio Pina escapes into the world of Sartre and Plato. The Mexican immigrant joins friends at a cafe and, for the first time, uses his newfound knowledge to ponder history’s great thinkers.
For several months, a small core of Mexican immigrants, many still clad in work clothes stained with dirt and paint, have convened at the Gads Hill Center, 1919 W. Cullerton St., for a grueling curriculum of college-level humanities classes, including history, literature and writing.
Many of the students never finished high school. For a long time, they have viewed their role in Chicago as that of hard workers with strong backs. No one cared about their minds.
On Sunday, however, that changed when a die-hard group of 10 students graduated from the Odyssey Project at a ceremony at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum.
“I like to say I’m a professional at cleaning bathrooms. But that is it,” said Pina, 36, of Chicago. “I have never had the time or the chance to think. Until now.”
Odyssey initially targeted African-American students and English-speaking Latinos, but this graduating class is the first eligible for college credit after taking courses entirely in Spanish. As Chicago sees an increased population of Mexican immigrants with low education levels, the Odyssey Project reflects a growing feeling by educators that they must expand learning opportunities, even in Spanish.
Earl Shorris, a writer and University of Chicago graduate, founded the Clemente Course in the humanities in 1995 at Bard College in New York. Educators have brought humanities courses to hundreds of low-income students in five states and the District of Columbia, including local courses offered by the Illinois Humanities Council.
By choosing to take college-level courses, the students are flying in the face of depressing data about the education levels of Mexican immigrants in the Chicago area.
Only one-third of Mexican immigrants 25 and older have high school diplomas, compared with 62 percent of all immigrants and 86 percent of native-born residents, according to Roosevelt University researchers. Just 3.4 percent of Mexican immigrants in Chicago have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Marcelo Diaz, an electrician, dropped out of college in Mexico City to come to Chicago in the 1980s. He expected to work for a year to earn enough money to buy a car. He never went back.
He said he cried after receiving his certificate Sunday, marveling at the energy in the room from all of those who value education.
“I know better things are going to happen for me,” he said. “I feel like I can do anything.”
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ABOUT ODYSSEY
– Students must be low-income, making less than $14,000 a year.
– They are not required to have finished high school, but they must have sufficient language skills to read a newspaper in Spanish.
– The classes are free, and organizers provide child care and even CTA cards.
