Last Thursday, 24th May 2018, AACI Santa Fe celebrated its 75th Anniversary. Being at the ceremony and seeing so many old known dear faces in the Power Point presentation boosted loving memories in me. I had plenty of flashbacks and was able to see my father, Jorge Douglas Maldonado, as a teacher in the early years of “La Cultural”. Of Scottish ancestry, he was bilingual and he had graduated as a teacher from Escuela Normal “Gral. San Martín”. That was an excellent mix to make him a very good teacher of English.
Moving some years later, I could recreate the picture of my mother, Dalie Arnau de Maldonado, knitting in the front hall at “Cultural” while she waited for my lessons to finish. I had the pleasure of enjoying some of Miss Ruth Browning’s lessons. Being the headmistress, she used to substitute absent teachers and was gifted enough to keep us motivated to learn just trying to understand the stories she told us. Another great teacher I remember is Miss Caroline Carruthers. She was so sweet and nice while teaching that we used to make great efforts to please her with our writings. But she was also strict. She would never answer our questions if we didn’t make them in English.
Much later, my three daughters attended lessons at AACI.
I cannot speak of AACI without mentioning my friend María Isabel Recamán, an unforgettable headmistress. And I must also admit that I'm proud to see many of my former students, now colleagues, developing their professional careers in the classroom which saw me learn English at various stages.
I cannot deny it, AACI has been part of my life and that is why I’m happy to celebrate its 75th anniversary.
My congratulations to Nora Poloni and the whole staff for the great organization. And a special mention to the master of ceremonies, Marina Suarez Gianello, whose guidance was impeccable all throughout the event.
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