This is a recent picture of me at my great-grandparents’, my grandparents’ my father’s farm in Tobias, NE.
Laura Bartels
Oct 29
Meet Mrs. Bartels
My name is Laura E. Bartels and I was born many years ago in the Mideast town of Paraguay called Pedro Juan Caballero (PJC). PJC was a small town established in the 1830s around what once was a large lake, now a pond called “Laguna Punta Pora”.
In 1841, after the bloody Triple Alliance war, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina against Paraguay, a large portions of the Paraguayan territory was taken by the neighboring country of Brazil. The land had to once again to be marked, and a new borderline was drawn just a couple of blocks north form the Laguna Punta Pora. In that area, there were no significant natural landmarks to call it a natural border, so a dry, green strip of land, today called “nobody’s land”, was established as a landmark of the border between Paraguay and Brazil at that location.
Many years latter, Brazil and Paraguay are literally one country at the same border that was once in conflict. People from both countries work together, share celebrations and many times morn together. At this historical war battle zone, three languages are spoken; Spanish and Guarani, which are the two Paraguayan official languages, and Portuguese, Brazil’s official language. I was very fortunate to be born in this place and to have attended to elementary school in Brazil. Every school day, I walked about 1 mile from my house across the street from Laguna Punta Pora to my school in Ponta Pora, Brazil, the other side of the border. Growning up at this unique setting not only gave me the ability to speak different languages but also the capacity to appreciate and cherish the differences of the peoples who spoke them.
Today I live in Lincoln-Nebraska, a calm developing city. People in Lincoln are friendly and eager to learn about immigrants, their usages, costumes, traditions and believes. Lincoln is a very welcoming place where immigrants have the opportunity to grow and to find themselves as Americans and also to find themselves in the many micro-ethnic communities that allow them to continue to be connected to their roots.
I have been a Lincoln citizen for 5 years and I am starting to call it home. I have been a teacher for 4 years and this is my second year teaching ELL for the Lincoln Public Schools. I enjoy my job throughly. What I love the most about it is that I learn new things from my students on a daily basis. I wish you had the chance to meet my students. I wish you had the chance to see them working together. Their native languages, cultural and academic backgrounds are interestingly different, but they manage to use it all to their advantage, to facilitate interaction and cooperation. It is really a sight to see these students work together.
