Born and raised in NJ to an Italian family. I never learned official Italian as a kid, only Sicilian dialect spoken in my home. At age 16 I took a job in a factory near my home where most of the workers were Hispanics from the Carribean. In my junior year I took Spanish One in high school. At the factory it was near total immersion. My knowledge of Sicilian helped me pick up Spanish easily. I got straight A's in Spanish for 2 years. I majored in Spanish and Latin American Studies in college and continued to get high grades. In my Junior Year I attended the Universidad Ibero-Americana in Mexico City. There I really progressed in the language and replaced my acquired Caribbean accent with a solid Mexican accent. I continued to do well in my Senior Year at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. After graduation I was hired by my home town high school in to teach Spanish and coach basketball and tennis. I went on to receive a Masters Degree in Spanish and Latin American Literature at Montclair State College in 1973. I taught Spanish in high school from 1971 to 1979. We moved to South Florida in summer 1979. I was hired by Eastern Airlines and worked there until 1983. I spent the next 32 years in the Department of Defense as an Intelligence Analyst specializing in Latin America. I also became an Adjunct Faculty member of the National Cryptologic School.
I am currently a resident in a Senior Living Facility in the Dallas Metroplex area. When asked if I could volunteer to participate in an activity, I offered to teach Basic Spanish Spanish to interested residents. I want to make it fun for them and I know I will enjoy teaching them. For this reason I found this site looking for materials. My last 32 years focused on advanced levels of Spanish and literature. I can teach any level but need to acquire some new basic materials since when we sold our home in San Antonio to move to Dallas area, we had to downsize considerably. I donated much of my personal library to a DOD language center in San Antonio.
