Pablo Guerrero Lopez, left, and Tom Hymel catch fish during the Spanish exchange student’s fish outing Tuesday. Seven high-school aged exchange students from Spain are in Iberia Parish through the Thanksgiving holiday.
Spanish exchange students Pablo Guerrero Lopez and Alejandro Moreno Navarro, at right, are joined by some local boys for some fishing Tuesday afternoon near Loreauville.
Pablo Guerrero Lopez, left, and Tom Hymel catch fish during the Spanish exchange student’s fish outing Tuesday. Seven high-school aged exchange students from Spain are in Iberia Parish through the Thanksgiving holiday.
Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian
Sarah Bourgeois, left, and Spanish exchange student Marta Jimenez Peña arrive for fishing near Loreauville.
Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian
Spanish exchange students Pablo Guerrero Lopez and Alejandro Moreno Navarro, at right, are joined by some local boys for some fishing Tuesday afternoon near Loreauville.
New Iberia will be home for seven exchange students and their English teacher for the next two weeks.
The students and their teacher, Ciaran J. Marry, are visiting from Alhaurín de la Torre, New Iberia’s twin city in Spain, said Ebrar Reaux.
New Iberia was founded by 16 Spanish families from the Málaga area. Two of the 16 were from Alhaurín de la Torre, Reaux said.
“That’s the reason New Iberia is twinned with it,” he said. “It’s also very comparable in size.”
The students, who range from age 13 to age 17, are visiting to improve their English and learn about a new culture, and they will also experience the American holiday of Thanksgiving.
This is the second year of the student exchange. Students from New Iberia will travel to Alhaurín de la Torre in April, Reaux said.
Marry and Reaux hope the exchange is an annual event.
“I want to transmit to the kids a love of traveling and understanding of the States, because for a lot of Europeans, there’s New York and Los Angeles,” Marry said. “They can’t see anything other than skyscrapers. American culture is our culture because of TV, movies. The river of culture flows toward Europe.”
Marry said the experience is like being in a movie for the students.
“Main Street could be Hill Valley from ‘Back to the Future.’ The cops, the military — they only see those in the movies,” he said.
Gladys Chapman and her husband, Will, The Daily Iberian’s publisher, are hosting Marry for some of his stay in New Iberia. Gladys Chapman went to Spain on the exchange program with Reaux and some students.
“I stayed with a family in Spain, and I wanted to do my part on this end,” Gladys Chapman said. “He’s already somewhat familiar with the Cajun culture, but we want to show him the hospitality of the people in our area. The Spanish people were very warm and welcoming to us, and we want to reciprocate so they can leave with a positive experience.”
Dana Bourgeois and her family are hosting 16-year-old Marta Jimenez Peña. Bourgeois’ daughter, Sarah, is the same age and is interested in European countries.
“She takes Spanish in school and wanted to share the experience,” Bourgeois said.
Sarah said she has been taking Spanish for two years and hopes to visit Spain. She said Marta heard about the exchange from friends who came to New Iberia last year.
“She said she likes school a lot,” Sarah said after she and Marta attended Catholic High School on Friday. “We had a pep rally. She doesn’t have those where she lives. She liked the cheerleaders because they don’t have those either.”
The students attended El Festival Español de Nueva Iberia this past weekend and were recognized individually by Mayor Hilda Curry. Pablo Guerrero Lopez, an exchange student, said on a fishing trip Tuesday that his favorite part of the festival was when the mayor said his name.
