William Moguel Cano, started his first year of high school in the United States at RB this year. Cano, born and raised in Tlaxcala, Mexico, moved here last summer to live with relatives and his nephew, RB student, Christopher Magno. Tlaxcala is a small state in south central Mexico, about 80 miles from Mexico City.  It is not too far from the epicenter of the most recent earthquake which caused major destruction and death in the area.

Cano faces many struggles due to the move from Mexico to the U.S, such as learning English and adapting to American culture. He doesn’t speak English other than a few words, but is improving every day. Cano also only knows his family so making new friends has become difficult even while he his on the school’s cross country team.

“The hardest part for me is the speaking.  It was also really difficult to leave my friends and family,” said Cano. “But what I miss the most is the food.”

When Cano moved to America, he had to leave everything he knew behind and adjust to a much bigger school.  Luckily, most of his classes have someone who speaks Spanish and they help translate what the teachers is explaining. There is one class where he has to translate everything on his Chromebook ,which is extremely hard to do fast enough to keep up with the discussion.

“The teacher says something and I type it in and they are already talking about something else,” Cano said.

Although he has had a challenging time, he has learned some about living in America.

“I learned how to coexist in a new culture,” said Cano. “My favorite part of school is that my teachers support me a lot.”