Article: `OUR CULTURE IS DYING' SCHOOL SECURITY SUPERVISOR BRINGS QUEST FOR ROOTS HOME TO THORNTON STUDENTS.(Local)

Byline: Cathy Cummins Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

THORNTON -- Ruben Mariz learned his first words of English when he went to school more than 50 years ago.

When his granddaughter started school, she learned her first word in Spanish, abuelito, or grandfather.

That's all she knows, Mariz, 60, told a group of Thornton High School students recently.

``Our culture is dying out,'' he said. ``I have very few contacts with people who speak Spanish. My 78-year-old mother speaks Spanglish, a mixture of English and Spanish, to me.''

Mariz, a security supervisor at the school for 10 years, spoke to history and English classes that ...

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