Precerpt from My 20th Language: L3 Spanish - Alejandra, My Mexican Pen-Pal
Alejandra, My Mexican Pen-pal When I was in seventh grade, I developed a strong interest in other cultures. In the 1960s, about the only way for a farm girl to access those cultures was vicariously—through pen-pal. I came across a pen-pal organization, Youth of All Nations, I think it was called, and made full use of its services, acquiring pen-pals in far-flung places, learning about so many different kinds of lives and ways of living, and even began a stamp collection that gathered in so many unique stamps that selling it when stranded for cash and out of work as a young adult helped my young family make it through another few months of struggle. That is how I began an intensive correspondence with Alejandra, a young girl my age from Mexico City. Her letters were vibrant—once I figured out what she meant to say. Her photographs, cards, and even small cultural gifts brought Mexico City alive for me, so alive that I wished that I could understand everything she was talking ab...