It's class time on a frigid Tuesday afternoon in the “big kitchen” area of the Recreation Center at Belmont Park as 10 members of the Belmont backstretch community, all native Spanish speakers, gather for the first of the week's two English as a Second Language or ESL class.
Today's topic is a comprehensive overview of a newspaper feature article, and for the next 90 minutes, participants will read, write about and discuss the piece – or as tutor Victoria Palacios put it, “really go over the material and in doing so, begin picking up the language.”
This is where members of the backstretch community practice and learn intermediate-level English from basic conversation and grammar to reading and writing. It's a part of backstretch culture that many people rarely see. Combined with classes in computer literacy and citizenship – all are presented by the Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.) – and the Belmont Child Care Association's (BCCA) weekly Women's Literacy “Zoom” sessions, the classes are a time-tested way that members of the backstretch community at Belmont are using to build both their English skills and self-confidence.
“You see people learning the language and you see their confidence growing,” said Francisco Barrera, a Belmont Park-based exercise rider for Robert Falcone, Jr. and a former jockey in his native Peru as well as Ecuador and the U.S. “People in class want to be here and they work hard to learn. Most have been up since before sunrise and some will be leaving shortly for afternoon feeding. But they make time for class and they do the homework and practice. It's important.”
Barrera, who retired from race riding in 2007, assists Palacios as an assistant tutor and credited the ESL classes with building a sense of community on the backstretch. “People here are from different places and in the discussions, we all share our cultures and views,” he said. “We learn and help one another, and we learn English.”
That same spirt comes through at the weekly BCCA's Women's Literacy class, now in its fourth year, where 15 women meet to read and discuss the book, The Whale Child, an inspiring middle-grade chapter book by Keith and Chenoa Egawa. Led by Gloria Bisbal Leon, this class currently meets online due to Covid-19 protocols at the BCCA childcare center, Anna House. BCCA Executive Director, Joanne K. Adams, reads to the group and the women take turns following her lead by reading from that chapter in the book.
“The participants are backstretch women who work full time, care for their children and their families, and make time to empower themselves by learning to speak, read, and write in English,” said Adams. “It's inspiring to see them achieve their goals.”
B.E.S.T. Executive Director Paul Ruchames agreed, calling the language classes part of the way people are working to get ahead, both on the job and in their lives.
“B.E.S.T.'s ESL, Citizenship training and computer lab programs are critical to the backstretch workers` success,” said Ruchames. “It's all about increasing connection – to others and to the world outside the gates of the race track. And nothing can be more thrilling than witnessing one of our students finally becoming an American citizen! We're very grateful to NYTHA (the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association) and NYRA for their unflinching support of these vital programs.”
The classes are among the programs made possible by the direct financial and in-kind support provided by NYRA and NYTHA to the backstretch non-profits, including B.E.S.T., BCCA and the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America, New York division.
Both the ESL and BCCA classes incorporate what their tutors call “practical” language to assist with real world day-to-day activities.
“From our perspective, we're not teaching English as much we're building confidence,” said Bisbal Leon of the “Women's Literacy” class, now in its fourth year. “You don't have to be perfect and it takes time. But once you get over that shyness (to speak English) and with enough hard work, you can improve.”
Bisbal Leon, who is office manager at Anna House, said she sees the pride that children get when their parents from the class read to them in English. She cited other benefits, from the way the parents use their newfound language skills when talking to their kids' teachers to incorporating English into their daily activities.
In the ESL class, Palacios blends vocabulary, comprehension and a writing exercise with a long discussion about holiday, family and good-luck customs, all in English. Everyone is encouraged to participate.
The atmosphere at both classes is welcoming. At the ESL class, where students sit classroom style at long tables, there is coffee before the lesson and box lunches afterwards when those not headed immediately back to the barns, linger and talk. For the following week, Palacios is considering Movie Day as a break from the grind of the lesson plan. She is also thinking of a Valentine's Day theme for mid-February.
Learning a new language, especially as an adult, can be hard work. In 2018 in one of the largest linguistics studies ever conducted—a viral internet survey that drew two-thirds of one million respondents—researchers from three Boston-area universities found that children are proficient at learning a second language up until the age of 18. But the study also showed that it is best to start by age 10 if you want to achieve the grammatical fluency of a native speaker – meaning that as we age, the most difficult it is to pick up a new language.
Palacios said one of her goals is to get students to the point where they begin thinking in English. A native of Chile who emigrated to New York at age 12, she understands the frustrations and the work it takes in learning to speak a new language. So does Bisbal Leon, who emigrated to the U.S. 19 years ago from Peru. Both tutors said their own experiences learning English motivated them to help others do the same.
For BCCA class member Erika Toledo, who has two daughters enrolled at Anna House, learning English is well worth the time. “The class is very good for me,” she said. “I like it. It really helps me with the words, at work and at the stores.”
