Mural work helps channel struggles with reading, writing

Sep. 25—Enrique Acuña was never taught to read or write when he was a child.

Acuña said he was just 6 years old when he went to a meeting with parents and teachers.

"They had the Board of Education, some directors, some psychiatrist. I'm standing right there as a 6-year-old kid listening to them. They tell my parents, 'Your son is mentally [r-----]. He will never have learning abilities,'" Acuña said, describing what was then a common term for people with learning disabilities.

"That threw me off from there. ... I was just a kid, but it blew me to where education just wasn't something I thought I could do, because of what I heard," he said.

Now 57, Acuña is learning to harness the skills he was never taught as a child, thanks to the Literary Volunteers of Santa Fe — a program at Santa Fe Community College that offers free tutoring to adults in reading, writing and speaking English.

He and a handful of his fellow students spent Friday afternoon helping paint a mural meant to promote literacy with artist Phil Yeh. The painting started Thursday and ended Saturday.

Yeh has painted more than 1,700 murals across the U.S. and in more than a dozen countries, with the goal of promoting literacy through art. He has painted murals throughout New Mexico, including Albuquerque, Carlsbad and one in Santa Fe on a city bus in 2010.

The new mural, which was painted on three large canvases, depicts the transformation of literacy in New Mexico, from ancient storytelling to books being brought to the state by Spanish settlers. The mural will be unveiled Sunday during a brunch celebration at La Fonda on the Plaza.

Yeh created the design for the mural, but he wanted students from the Literary Volunteers of Santa Fe to help. Though many had no experience painting, they were ready to pick up a brush and get to work.

"The murals create a visual," Yeh said. "That enables us to talk about the issue."

The issue in question: the staggering number of people who don't know how to read and write. According to a 2020 Gallup analysis of data collected by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, 2014 and 2017, 54 percent of adults in the country have a literacy below a sixth grade level.

The Department of Education also found 21 percent of adults do not have the literacy skills to complete tasks that require comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing or making low-level inferences.

Yeh said he thinks part of the issue is a culture that doesn't value books.

"People are addicted to their cellphones, to the TV and movies. They're not really reading books. This is a problem because if you don't read real books, you don't really have real knowledge," Yeh said.

He said some people struggling with literacy feel intense shame, and don't always seek ways to learn. For him, the problem was dyslexia.

"I can read, but I cannot spell," Yeh said.

He remembered getting zeros on all his spelling tests when he was in fifth grade. One day, his teacher passed out tests and did not give one to Yeh.

"I raised my hand and said, 'I didn't get my paper,' " he recalled. "She says, 'Phil, what's the point?' and everyone starts laughing. I said, 'That's fine, I'll just draw.' "

Yeh eventually wanted to become a writer, but never thought he would be able to until he met Ray Bradbury, a science fiction writer perhaps best known as the author of the novel Fahrenheit 451.

"'Just write your ideas down, the ideas are the most important thing,'" Yeh recalled Bradbury telling him.

Acuña said for him, the issue stemmed from an education system that failed him when he was young. The words from that meeting stayed with him for most of his life, and he believed he would never be able to read and write.

"If I wouldn't have been labeled, it probably would have went different," Acuña said. "Now they use the term mentally disabled — dyslexia and stuff like that — they never said that back then."

He was placed in special-education classes, where he said he didn't have expectations to learn, and dropped out in middle school. Over the years, Acuña said he struggled with drugs and alcohol, and even spent some time in prison.

"I shut down and withdrew from everything," he said.

After getting sober, Acuña decided it was time to better his life. He used the Bible to teach himself to read, and started taking classes with the Literary Volunteers of Santa Fe. The program set him up with a computer, which he uses to connect with an online tutor.

For Acuña, things as simple as writing an email became accomplishments as his skills gradually improved. He said he hopes to go on to get a GED or high school equivalency, and take classes to become a minister.

"That's my heart's desire, my passion," he said.