Daniel Guerrero

Charles Blanco, a Spanish teacher at Granada Hills charter High School (GHC), felt the need to explore and travel more in his early days of attending to El Camino College. Out of all the states and country that are present in this world, he chose to travel to the effortlessly beautiful, Hawaii.

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Blanco adored the fresh air while taking in the nature that Hawaii had over time. He laid down on the warm sand by the shore under the hot sun, hiked on craggy trails, paddleboard on top on the blue ocean that has attractive sea creatures, rode his bike while having the brizz to be blown on him, and gardened his plants that really pop out during the day. This was a tranquil life for him and live at first sight.

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Blanco lived in Oahu island and became his home for the next 11 years.  He attended the University of Hawaii and Chaminade University Of Honolulu. In that time, he wanted to become a dentist, but was not really a fan of studying math and science. Therefore, he decided to switched to study on becoming a Spanish teacher instead because he knows the language as well as the different kinds of cultures that utilizes it over time.

 

After graduating, he first taught at Le Jardin Academy for 5 years where it has green mountains surrounding the whole entire campus while establishing a beautiful scene. Likewise, he also taught at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls for one year as well. According to him, he thought they were amazing schools, but missed his last classroom at La Pietra because it established an alluring sight to observe.

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“That room had a tiny balcony that overlooked a sculpture garden and had an amazing ocean view and let in a perfect breeze” said Charles Blanco.

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During his days of teaching those schools, he then realized that he strongly enjoys teaching his Spanish classes where he does not regret of dropping out of the idea of becoming a dentist.

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Besides becoming a Spanish teacher, he was working as a waiter at multiple restaurants in the Kalihi Valley as well. There, he would pick up pidgin words that comes out of people month at the restaurant. Therefore, this would lead to him to speak in pidgin and french as well while having others to believe that he actually speaks in that language.

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“I picked up on some pidgin though--its a local slang. For example, instead of staying, ‘Where is she?,’ you'd say ‘Where she stay?’ I remember struggling to understand almost everything certain locals would say. (Certain locals only speak a very heavy pidgin)” Blanco also said.

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Besides living in Oahu island, he also visited other islands that Hawaii has as well like Maui, Kauai, and the Big island. Each of these islands, he met a lot of people where he soon became friends with. In fact, he still keeps in touch with them up to this day.

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“A few of them come and visit me every once in a while. My best friend, Emily, named her daughter after me. Her name is Charlie” said Charles Blanco.

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After years of living in Hawaii, he decided to visit México for while where he ran into a person that he build up a relationship with. Therefore, this lead to him staying in California for a while until the relationship did not really work out due to personal reasons. In fact, this also lead to him moving to California entirely while missing the suddening nature of Hawaii.

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Even though he left so many memories behind in Hawaii, he made many friends in California where they enjoy talking with him.

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“Charles and I become friends the moment we met and talked ever since” Patricia Jimenez said.

Blanco miss Hawaii at times, however, living in California and Hawaii makes him feel like home.

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