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Forty-one students returned letters of permission with parents'
signature indicating that parents would participate in an interview.
It may be that they did not understand the letter even though it was
written in Spanish and approved by the students' teachers as being
correctly written. It is possible that the parents were too busy
with their work schedules. One girl said her mother did not want to
talk about Cuba because it made her sad. One of the parents said she
knew why the other parents were reluctant to participate. "They don't
want you to hear them speak Spanish. They know their Spanish is bad
and they are ashamed of it," she said. Two other students brought
notes from home expressing regrets that the parents could not come for
the interviews. Both notes stated that because of a heavy work schedule
parents were unable to find the time to meet with me. Three more
students told me their parents had asked them to tell me they could
not come to school. On the last day I was at school, two students
invited me to their homes. Unfortunately, I could not go at that time.
Parents were asked to contrast the school systems in the U.S. and
in Cuba in as far as they were familiar with them and to discuss any
observations which they might have regarding the family's adjustment to
their new life in the U.S. and the way their children were learning
English.
Both mothers who participated said they were happy to be able to
talk about their experiences and were pleased that someone in the U.S.
wanted to know about Cuba. Two interviews were conducted in the testing
room at school, and two were conducted at the parents' homes.