Education connects

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According to Brown University Library, nearly all Brazilian immigrants come to the U.S. in search of higher wages, lower living costs, and a desire to escape the inflation that plagued Brazil until 1994. Even when prices stabilized in Brazil, salaries remained stagnant, and middle- and lower-class Brazilians lost roughly one-third of their purchasing power. Despite the fact that more Brazilians are attending university than ever, there has not been growth in the professional job market to match the growth in higher education. 

The Island has a robust population of Brazilians living, working, and contributing to our community. A previous MV Times article stated that Brazilians now represent an estimated 20 percent of the Island’s year-round residents. Island educator Maria Moreira is one of those residents, who came to the U.S. from Curitiba, Brazil, nine years ago. Moreira’s career in education spans 34 years, and her contributions have significantly shaped the landscape of language and cultural education in both Brazil and the U.S.

“I have a master’s in education from Brazil,” Moreira said. “My career was in child education.” Moreira expanded her scope to include teacher training and curriculum development, and worked as educational coordinator at the Educational Activity Center in Tistu, Brazil. “I traveled all around Brazil and talked to the teachers about books, conferences, websites, and how they can put it all together to teach better.”

Originally Moreira wasn’t keen to come to America, but her daughter Victoria’s passion for the U.S. shifted her thinking. “Victoria is 22 now, but she came here when she was 14, because she loves the U.S.,” Moreira said. While living in Brazil, Victoria studied at a bilingual school. “When she was 5 years old, she watched ‘High School Musical’ (a Disney TV and film series), and said, ‘I want to study in America.’ I told her it was impossible — that I have a life in Brazil. Then, when she was 10, we went to Disney, and she loved it, and wanted to come here. When we went to New York one time she said, ’I want to live here.’ Then the third time we came, we visited Harvard, and she said to me, ‘If you don’t want to live here, that’s OK. I’ll come when I turn 18.’”

At that point, Moreira realized that Victoria clearly knew what she wanted, and that a change was imminent. “I’m here because of her dream. I stopped my life, and after one year we moved here,” Moreira said. Victoria was in eighth grade at the time and attended Oak Bluffs School. “She had good English. People couldn’t believe she had lived in Brazil. She loved it here so much. She didn’t want to go back. I was scared. My English was not too good.” 

When she first arrived, Moreira became a housecleaner. “I didn’t like the work. It was not for me, and I was not good at it, but I stayed for Victoria’s dream,” Moreira said. “She was a really good student, and was amazing at school.”

People kept telling Moreira that she should try to teach here. At first she was leery, but eventually she gave it a try. “I started teaching kids at my home, and I worked at the Boys and Girls Club for four years. I was cleaning, but I knew I could do more for these kids,” she said.

Ironically, it wound up being the kids who taught Moreira the English she speaks today. “One day the kids asked me, ‘Why don’t you read for us?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know how to read English well.’ One little boy said, ‘You can, Maria. You have good English.’ This little boy gave me a rock. ‘Take this. This is a good luck rock.’ I teared up. Then I got a book. At first I made mistakes, but I finished the story, and the kids were like — ‘Yes! You did it!’ I cried with them. I still have this rock. It’s so important. I want to be like this little boy. I want to say to everyone — ‘You can!’ I want people to believe in themselves.”

ACE MV heard about Moreira, and asked if she would teach adult Portuguese classes. “I started last fall,” she said. “I think the expectations from adults are so big. It’s hard to learn a new language as an adult.” The classes run for six weeks, one night a week, for two hours. “The adults are working, so they don’t have much time after work to study, so it’s hard. I try to make our time fun. I want them to come back. Six weeks is good, but we need more time.” 

Moreira’s work is important, yes, but it’s also practical. “One of my students is a builder, and wanted to be able to talk to Brazilian subcontractors. Now I want to know what they talk about in construction. I want to learn the names of the tools they use, so I can teach them that in Portuguese. This helps everyone,” she said.

Moreira also found that people who wanted to go to Brazil would reach out and ask for help with basic language skills. “I had a few students who wanted to go to Brazil, and they wanted to know what was important to learn,” she said. So Moreira set about creating a curriculum. “First, we started to organize their trip together. I asked them questions, like, ‘Where do you want to go? What do you need to take with you — a passport, money — what clothes do you need?’ I did half of this in English and half in Portuguese,” she said. ”We exchanged information this way.” 

Then she focused on grammar. “Grammar is so annoying for everybody,” Moreira laughed. “Prepositions, verbs … I try to make this time fun and involve them. I tell them all about the fun things in Brazil — the food, parties, Carnival, what happens at the parties. I’m a teacher who specializes in kids, but I have to change the material for adults. So I get to the adults’ interests.”

From a cleaner to a business owner, Moreira currently runs Moreira Education Solutions, the mission of which is to bridge cultural and linguistic gaps and provide Portuguese-language education and cultural experiences, enhance cognitive development, promote educational equity, and support community integration. 

“My goal is to have one community here. People want to understand each other,” she said. “I also want to share more of Brazilian culture. I want people to understand that Brazil is more than one city. Here you have a big country, but Brazil is also big, with so many amazing places. And Brazil is diverse. Just like here, there is good and bad. Rio de Janeiro is wonderful, but there are bad things. New York is wonderful, but you have bad things. Paris is wonderful, but there are bad things. I want us to think the best of one another.”

I asked Moreira what she misses about Brazil. “My friends. My house. Also, I lost my mom 17 years ago, and my dad 10 years ago. I think after you lose your parents, your history is in parts,” she said. “Now I don’t have the base of my history. I miss this history. But now I have pretty good friends in both the American and Brazilian communities.”

What’s next for Moreira? “In the fall I will be teaching more classes through ACE at the high school. I also hold private classes. The past two months, I trained two teachers because I can’t do it alone. We need more people to teach,” she said. “I think most American people want to learn. I had a bad experience once at a business because the person I was speaking to didn’t understand me, even though I was speaking in English. I felt like they didn’t want to understand. It’s OK if you don’t understand me, but if you smile and say, ‘I don’t understand,’ it’s OK! We can do this together.” 

And what of Victoria? “She speaks four languages. Right now she is learning Mandarin. This last month she went to Barcelona just to talk in Spanish,” Moreira said. “You can do whatever you want in this country. And today I love what I’m doing in education. I look at all I did in my life, and I say ‘Yes, I can.’ I have confidence and I can make contributions to my community and to American people. I finally feel like I have respect here, because the community understands why I’m here. I love to look into my daughter’s eyes and hear her say, ‘I’m so proud of you.’” 

To learn more about Maria Moreira and the classes she offers, check out her website, moreiraeducationsolution.com.