For Margo Dominguez, being a translator/interpreter for Thompson School District is a lot more than just being able to speak two languages fluently.
“Being bicultural is sometimes more important than being bilingual,” she says. “It’s called cultural fluency.”
The ability to bridge two different cultures and help them understand each other is critical to helping students succeed when they come from culturally diverse backgrounds. Margo knows something about this, having come to the United States from Mexico when she was in middle school.
At that time, Margo’s father had passed away suddenly in a car accident, and her life was upended. Her mother decided to relocate the family to Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1989, and Margo was suddenly thrown into a whole new world.
“I was fortunate to go to private school in Mexico, and I had a good start coming to the U.S. I knew all the basic English,” Margo recalls. “But being in an all-English school was completely different. It was a crash course. It took two to three years to feel fluent and be able to speak it.”
As challenging as it was for Margo to move to a new country, she believes she was lucky and that some families have a much harder time with the transition.
“A lot of times, the lack of engagement on [non-English speaking] parents’ part has to do with just trying to make it and survive, to get through to the next day,” Margo says. “When they come here, they don’t even know where to start; they don’t know about the basics. Some of them have worked in the fields their whole lives.”
Margo takes pride in the fact that, in many cases, the work of the TSD translation team removes the barriers that students might face to getting an education.
“We are helping the people that otherwise would not know what was happening with their children,” she explains. “It’s fulfilling to see them open their eyes and say, ‘Oh, that’s what they were talking about!’”
When Margo first came to the United States, she also felt somewhat lost. She found that her home life was not as peaceful and grounding as it had once been. Around this time, Margo discovered two things that would become her foundation in life: her faith and the man she eventually married, her husband, Lorenzo.
“He was the sweetest, and he still is. That completely made a shift in my life,” Margo says. “We built a life together.”
That life included Margo and Lorenzo going to college in New Mexico, later moving to northern Colorado, and having three children. Margo’s commitment to her young family led her to seek part-time work with the school district, allowing her to be home before and after school for her kids. In those days, 17 years ago, the translation team — and the demand — was relatively small.
“Today, there are 43 spoken languages in our district — at least twice as many as when I started,” Margo says, recalling that back then, the entire translation team consisted of only a couple of part-time employees. Today, the team consists of one part-time and three full-time translators/interpreters for Spanish, as well as a large number of contractors who translate and interpret the many other languages represented in our district.
Margo’s supervisor, Chief Communications Officer Mike Hausmann, says that Margo’s commitment to the families she serves is part of what makes her such an asset to the school district.
“Margo’s skills as an interpreter and translator are top-notch,” Mike says. “But most importantly, she is also a fantastic person with a wonderful heart who genuinely cares about each family and community member she serves.”
Margo’s caring for the families she works with is second nature, and her firsthand knowledge of their challenges makes it easier for her to help them.
“The important part is knowing that everyone has a story,” she says. “To have gotten here, they’ve left their country behind, they’ve left family. They’ve left everything they knew. They’ve already been through a lot by the time I get to help them.”