WINONA LAKE - Though born in an impoverished village in Central Mexico, Dr. Juana Watson was able to get an education, move to the United States and become the senior advisor for Latino affairs for Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
Thursday morning, Watson was the keynote speaker at the Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce Education Summit XIV. The theme this year was "Building a Better Community: Uniting Culture Through Education."
Wendy Wildman-Long, Warsaw Schools director of English as a Second Language Services, introduced Watson. Wildman-Long said Watson is a worldwide known speaker on cultural affairs. She serves on numerous boards and has received many honors. Watson also has been featured in a book and television programs.
But the road to her success began in a village in Central Mexico, Watson said.
In her village, even today, Watson said, women die during child birth because there is no clinic. Children die young partly because they drink water from river. Though most of the families in her village have many children, Watson said, "For some reason, I was an only child."
When she was 11 years old, her father decided to take her to another town to go to school. They left by horse because the village, at that time, had no roads or electricity. The trip took them five hours by horse and then three bus rides.
Watson's dad thought it would be easy for her to get into the school so he left her alone in the town and went home. Without the paperwork and not able to take the required test that her father didn't know was required, Watson was left homeless at 11 years old in the strange town. She had no way to call home or go home. A year later, with a teacher's help, Watson was finally able to get into the school.
In 1978, when Watson came to Indiana, she had only a junior high education. She couldn't speak English, and thought the U.S. would be like it's portrayed in Hollywood movies.
"Arriving here without speaking English was hard," said Watson.
When she moved to Columbus, Ind., Watson said, there were no Latinos. She was frequently stared at. "If I ever wrote a book, it would be called 'Everything I learned about the U.S. I learned in the Grocery Store," she said.
Eventually, she married and had three children. One day, when her oldest daughter was 7 years old, she overheard her daughter tell a friend how lucky the friend was that her mother read to her. That's when she realized her children were becoming her parents because they were running the household, and she didn't want that to happen.
Watson finished high school. She earned her bachelor's degree, master's degree and on May 2, she received her doctorate.
"I'm not telling you this to brag. I'm telling you this to show you that it can be done," Watson said.
She goes back and visits her village in Mexico. It hasn't changed much. But now when she goes, she goes back to help the people of her village and takes Americans with her. They learn to appreciate what they have, she said.
By 2015, Watson said, one out of five people in the U.S. will be Latino. "The reason again is demographics," she said. While the average Anglo-Saxon family is having less than two children per household, and African-Americans are having two, Latinos are having five children.
It is important for everyone to find common ground, she said. And all Latinos are not alike. Not everyone who speaks Spanish is from Mexico, she said. "We come from 21 different countries," she said.
Watson works with other cultures besides Latinos. There are Buddhist Temples in Indianapolis, and Muslim Mosques in South Bend and Indianapolis. Different groups of people are arriving to this country all the time, and that's good, she said, for life and business.
Watson said the U.S. doesn't need to change all the signs and brochures to Spanish. Latinos coming to the U.S. need to learn the English terms. But they do need help learning the language and the laws.
At the end of the Education Summit, Watson concluded by saying, "Education is the number one priority. That is what is going to unite us."
