Sergio Jerez

UWRT 1102
10/19/17

Literacy Narrative

Becoming a literate person has been and always will be an ongoing process. In my personal

experience this process began at an age when I couldnt even utter a single word, however, my

mother would read to me every day to show me the importance of reading. The process has then

continued and gotten harder as the years have passed. In elementary school I participated in

contests to see which student would read the most books throughout the school year, in middle

school I had to turn in a book report every month, in high school I got tested on the content of

books, and now in college if I dont read I dont pass any test. Therefore, I believe it is fair to say

that my process of literation is far from over. Despite living in a system where one is educated to

believe that reading is one of the most important aspects of education I learned the importance of

reading from a prayer out loud to a group of my mothers friends.

In Colombia, a few days before Christmas, family and friends get together every evening

to pray and celebrate that Christmas is almost there. Each person participating in the celebration

has to read one of the prayers and then pass the book of prayers on to the next person. It so

happened that I was passed the booklet of prayers and had to read an excerpt from it. I spoke the

words that I saw on the paper but I didnt read it. I didnt understand any of the words on the page

and I started to feel unwell with the fact that I celebrated something without understanding why

and without being able to read about it. At that moment I realized that reading would be the only

thing that allowed me to gain the knowledge I needed.

After years of performing the same tradition I realized that my lack of knowledge was due

to the fact that my reading skills were weak. Even having my mom read to me for years didnt
 Sergio Jerez
UWRT 1102
10/19/17
make me realize that going through the world without reading is like walking with your head down

and only looking at the ground. Not being able to understand a simple prayer made change my

mental chip and view reading in a different way. With what I learned that night trying to read the

prayer, my life moved in a positive direction that has helped in my personal and pedagogic life.

Now almost 13 years after that December night, I know why I celebrate Christmas and when it is

my turn to read I understand every word and the meaning of such excerpts. Ever since then I walk

through the world with my head held high and absorbing as much information as my brain can

hold. Because reading does that, it lets you understand the world around you and helps you imagine

a world that might not exist.

Upon developing a broader affection for reading I was able to appreciate different type of

literature. I read more philosophical book like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho or fantasy novels

like Harry Potter. The ability to be literate is having the capability to acquire knowledge.

Magazines, books, and the internet have helped me develop my literary skills and increased my

capacity of knowledge of my everyday life. No matter what the genre was I was able to appreciate

its content and its meaning. Reading can sometimes hold a meaning that goes beyond the written

word. The event of the prayer was a life changing moment, however, it was just one step in me

becoming the literate person I am today. After discovering the importance of reading in such family

gathering, something happened to me that held me back from taking complete advantage of what

was my recent fascination for reading. This set back was moving to the United States. Even though

I studied in a bilingual school my English was not very good and specially my reading. I got to

North Carolina and I pretty much had to start my literation process all over. I was again at that

point where I would read material and not understand it. However, at this point I knew the
 Sergio Jerez
UWRT 1102
10/19/17
importance that reading had so my drive to learn English and read in English was much higher

than when I first started to read in Spanish.

The transition from Spanish to English was rather quick for me in terms of speaking. I

easily communicated with my peers and they understood me. But at the age of 12 and 13 the

communication between teens that age has a more limited vocabulary that excluded some of the

words and phrases I saw in literature. I took years before I was able to fully comprehend a text in

English and I still struggle with some words. In spite of the difficulty that was learning to read in

English, the thought of the prayer was always in the back of my head, and it helped overcome the

difficulties and continue my literation process. Today, I am able to read in both English and

Spanish with as much ease, this is mostly due to a single experience that shaped who I am as a

reader, writer, and communicator.

Reading material from another country gives you an insight of what their culture and

mindsets are. I am proud to say that through my reading I was able to learn a lot about how to

understand and behave myself in the American Culture. Like I said before, language can have

meaning that goes beyond the written word and that is true for any language. In my experience, I

saw that English has tremendous history and knowledge behind it, specially through its writing.

Language has held civilizations, people, and cultures together, English is no different. Behind the

language there is the history of not only the United States but the world as well. Me becoming

literate has taught me about American history dating back to the 1700s, World history,

international conflict, and English written literature that shapes how we read and write to this day.

Without the knowledge that reading in English has given me I wouldnt know half of the things I

know today and it in large part due to the ability to appreciate the writing in any language.
 Sergio Jerez
UWRT 1102
10/19/17
Being literate however doesnt always involve reading material that you are interested in

and in all honesty material that doesnt interest me I find hard to understand. This has been a

challenge that I have been trying to overcome for the past several years. Being assigned reading

material in school is a daily occurrence and it is not an easy task. Even though I am able to read

and comprehend almost any word that is present on a paper, reading assigned material is dreadful

labor. Reading material that youre not interested in is like eating something you dont like. You

still do the same process: chew, taste, and swallow. However, you dont enjoy it and you try it to

get it over with as fast as possible, so therefore you dont get to savor all the ingredients and work

that was put into it. That happens to me with some of the things I read in school. I read it but I am

unable to appreciate and absorb its content. Even though I appreciate and enjoy reading, there is

still a part of the literation process that is incomplete, I hope someday and event allows me to

appreciate assigned reading material as much as that prayer helped me appreciate other forms of

reading.

Literacy allows us humans to understand how and why we are. Reading helps us understand

traditions like the prayer helped me understand why I celebrate Christmas. It gives us the

knowledge necessary to walk through life with our head held high and prevents us from ever losing

touch with the world around us. Not only that but reading lets you create and imagine people,

places, or things that might not exist. For many, reading is the one only source of their imagination.

The appreciation for reading has help me with what was previously mentioned and much more.

Reading has allowed me to properly learn a language and the culture and history that come a long

with it. But even with such high appreciation for reading, I still lack the appreciation for certain

texts. Therefore, my development as a reader and my literation process is far from over and is to

be improved with more experiences and knowledge acquired.