At a soccer field outside Guillen Middle School in El Paso, about 300 yards from the Texas-Mexico border, Segundo Barrio Futbol Club meets twice a week in the evenings for practice.
Segundo Barrio is an historic Hispanic neighborhood and the soccer club is very involved in the community.
“With the football club, obviously… You get to know the kids, you get to know the siblings, you get to know the families,” Club Founder Simon Chandler said. “It kind of just seemed natural to start working with the families and seeing how we can support the families.”
The club helps families with food insecurity and connects them to other local resources. They also offer adult education classes to parents as part of the Plazas Comunitarias program.
The program’s name translates roughly to “community gathering spaces.” It’s run by two Mexican government agencies in partnership with Mexican Consulates throughout the U.S.
Martha Velda Hernández Moreno is the director of education for one of the agencies, the Institute of Mexicans Abroad. She says the goal of the Plazas Comunitarias program is to close the education gap for Mexicans in the United States.
“Las plazas comunitarias tienen un objetivo básico básico,” she said. “¿Cómo le apostamos a seguir conservando esta posibilidad de desarrollo personal y profesional?… Es un principio muy mexicano, no?”
She also said it’s an important cultural value to provide these educational opportunities – even to Mexican citizens outside of the country.
For those who complete the program, Plazas offer certificates that give proof of educational attainment for elementary and middle school in Mexico. They also usually teach GED prep. Some even offer English language and citizenship classes. And it’s all free. Interested prospective students can seek out information about classes at their local Mexican Consulate.
The Plazas program launched in 2001 in New York, but it came out of an effort from the Mexican government that dates back to the 1970s to improve relations with the U.S.
However, the Plazas Comunitarias program also has a financial component, according to Irasema Coronado, the director of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University.
Mexican immigrants in the U.S. often send money home to their families — and a GED and better English skills make it easier to find higher-paying jobs.
“Many families in Mexico rely on those remittances for their survival,” Coronado said. “And so what would happen if those remittances would dry up? That would be a huge challenge for the Mexican government.”
Today, there are 35 Plazas across Texas, including four in El Paso. Across town from Segundo Barrio, students at another Plaza at El Paso Community College are studying for their GEDs.
Esmerelda Valencia was born in El Paso but didn’t graduate from high school because her family moved around a lot. She started taking GED classes at this Plaza in September.
“Since I’m more connected to my roots, which are Mexican, I’m more comfortable for the teacher to explain (it to) me in Spanish rather than English,” she said.
Valencia wants to study cosmetology and accounting. At 26, she’s one of the youngest in the class. Most students are in their 40s and 50s, and almost all are women.
Cecilia Cisneros was born in Ciudad Juárez. She said she dropped out of school at 15 when she became pregnant. Cisneros wants to study art, and she says knowing the Mexican government is investing in her education makes her feel supported.
“Se siente protegido por su propia gente, por su propio país,” she said. “Porque emigrar no es cosa fácil.”
El Paso Community College has been a Plaza for almost 20 years. It’s funded by grants from the Mexican government, as well as a mix of other sources on the U.S. side of the border.
Suamy Meza, who manages the program on campus, said El Paso’s Mexican Consulate offers additional resources to students.
“It’s not only the education part, the academic part. They get information about health,” Meza said. “They get information about finance. They get information about legal rights. It’s a program that has all these benefits for the community.”
Mauricio Ibarra, the Cónsul General of Mexico in El Paso, said the four local Plazas had over 2,000 students registered in 2024. More than 100 graduated with GEDs and another hundred got lower-level certificates.
“I think that we need to give them the most tools that we can provide to them so that they can integrate and have a better standard of living here,” Ibarra said. “It’s also the right to get free education from the Mexican government.”
For students like Cecilia Cisneros, who had to put their own education on hold, Plazas Comunitarias offer a second chance that feels precious. She said: “I’m not dead yet, so I can do it.”
“Mucha gente piensa que ya es tarde para estudiar. Yo siempre les digo a todos ‘Yo todavía no me muero, yo todavía lo puedo hacer,’” she said. “Nosotros, las personas ya de cierta edad que nosotros tuvimos que guardar las salas con las que volábamos para ayudar a los demás a volar. Ahorita ya es hora de sacarlas y nunca es tarde para terminar lo que empezamos.”
Cisneros said for those of us of a certain age, who had to make a home so that others could fly, now it is our turn to soar. She said it’s never too late to finish what you started.
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