Holiday tales for all

Port Chester Hispanic Advisory Board hosts inaugural Bilingual Story Time at the library

December 12, 2024 at 12:33 a.m.

Port Chester Trustee Joe Carvin paces and gestures around the room as he reads the Spanish translation of “The Grumpy Reindeer” by Clare Wilson at the Bilingual Story Time event hosted by the Port Chester Hispanic Advisory Board at the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library on Saturday, Dec. 7. (David Tapia/Westmore News)

Members of the Port Chester Hispanic Advisory Board, a group founded last year to assist the Spanish-speaking community in having their voices heard, have said part of their goal is to create a bridge between cultures.

“We’d like people to be aware that there are two languages that are prominent here in Port Chester,” said founding member of the organization Juliana Alzate, who is also a Village trustee. She added that a language barrier shouldn’t prevent residents from enjoying community events.

    Port Chester Board of Education Trustee George Ford reads “It’s Not Easy Being Santa Claus” by Marilyn Sadler to the 40 residents in attendance.
 By David Tapia   

To that end, the group hosted a Bilingual Story Time event at the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library on Saturday, Dec. 7, where residents were invited to bring their children to listen to holiday-themed tales.

“It was very much an intentional choice to do it at this time,” Alzate said. “There’s a lot of momentum from other holiday events and it brings out a good spirit in people.”

The 40 attendees were gifted Santa hats when they entered the children’s reading room on the second floor of the library, where Children’s Librarian Tee Cotter introduced the guest readers.

Village Trustee Joe Carvin and resident Andres Castellanos recited stories in Spanish, while Port Chester Police Officer Thomas Sorbella and Port Chester Board of Education Trustee George Ford read aloud in English.

Alzate said balance in representation was important for the Hispanic Advisory Board.

    Listening to the Spanish translation of “The Night Before Christmas” by Natasha Wing, Port Chester 2-year-old Sarah Castellanos (left) lies next to her aunt, Port Chester Trustee and Hispanic Advisory Board founder Juliana Alzate, and 10-year-old Orchard Street resident Dulce Cieza.
 By David Tapia   

“We wanted to emphasize the diversity here,” she said. “That way, everyone felt represented. We alternated between the languages to keep the attention of the audience.”

Alzate believes exposure to both languages can play a large part in bridging the cultures that encompass the Village.

“Getting people together and talking is important because they can still get a feel for each other and at least see what each community looks like,” she said.

The Hispanic Advisory Board hopes to grow this event and its resource fair into a yearly tradition.

“We had a good turnout for it being the first one, so that’s good,” Alzate said. “But we want to bring as much as possible for the residents of Port Chester. Our big resource fair was also very successful, but we want to expand that as well. We’d like to reach out to as many people as possible to bring these communities together.”