Mercedes Padrino Anderson arrived in the United States in 1962, a refugee from Fidel Castro’s Cuba. It was the year President John F. Kennedy faced down Premier Nikita Khrushchev as the Soviet Union was building nuclear missile launch sites on the island about 90 miles from Key West.
She would later become the ideal fit for a teacher of mostly immigrants in Bucks County.
Mercy, as she is known, was 9 years old and alone. She was among 14,000 Cuban children who were airlifted to Miami between 1960 and 1962 in Operation Pedro Pan. Castro had taken over Cuba’s leadership at the fall of dictator Fulgencio Batista, who fled from the island on New Year’s Day 1959 as Castro’s forces moved into Havana. Three years later, the country had been transformed into a communist state and an ally of the Soviet Union.
“I was one of those children. Being a Pedro Pan certainly changed my life from any expectations I could have had as a young child and pointed me in a new direction,” Mercy said last week as we talked in her Newtown home.
Mercy’s parents stayed behind in Cuba — they would arrive in this country a few years later — as their daughter settled first in Miami and later in New York with family members. She attended public schools and earned a degree in English from Harvard-Radcliffe College.
After college Mercy edited textbooks for a Princeton education company, taught in a high school and moved on to teaching positions at Trenton State College (The College of New Jersey) and Bucks County Community College.
Fifteen years ago, Mercy became the program coordinator for adult basic education (GED — high school equivalency learning) — at Vita Education Services in Doylestown. She retired at the end of June as Vita’s executive director.
“I loved it,” she said. “The rewards are just tremendous. The students are so grateful, a joy to teach. Adults are more ambitious. They’re not thinking about themselves; they’re thinking about how they can make a better life for their children.”
According to the Vita website, “Since 1971, Vita has provided free, accessible educational services to the educationally disadvantaged, underserved populations in Bucks County. It was founded by Judge Ludwig from the Court of Common Pleas and a dedicated group of volunteers. ....Much of our programming focuses on developing skills that allow our students to gain entry to a highly competitive work environment, to transition to further education and training, and to support their children’s success in school.”
The organization’s literacy programs, held in Warminster and Bristol, offer classes and tutoring in basic reading, writing, math and English as a Second Language — the knowledge needed to pass the GED (high school equivalency test). Vita’s Workplace Program trains students in interpersonal skills, the behavioral skills needed to find and keep a job.
Most Vita students are immigrants who arrived in this country with little or no understanding of English. Most are evening students, about 75%. “They rush home from their jobs, put food on the table, finish cleaning up and rush off to class,” Mercy said. And it’s not easy to find teachers to fill the evening positions — classes end at 9 p.m.
For Mercy, after teaching in high school and college, no matter what the hours, getting to teach adults was “it.” The work is intense but it gets into your heart, she said.
Professional teachers cover Vita’s main programs and write the lesson plans for the 45 volunteers who work with small groups of five or six students. Services are not limited to immigrants.
In the Bucks County correctional facilities, for example Vita holds classes for basic skills in addition to decision-making support programs, which help inmates make plans for life after prison. In the workplace programs, Vita guides inmates through attitude changes, helping them make better decisions and preparing them to be efficient and productive on the jobs they will need after release.
The COVID pandemic was probably Mercy’s biggest challenge.
“It was very, very tough,” she said. “We maintained classes. We were very proud. We closed down in March 2020 and three weeks later we were up and running.”
She boasted that Vita very quickly figured out how to keep running its programs, but not all students could adapt to remote learning.
“It was discouraging,” Mercy said.
Some students didn’t have tech support or didn’t have the equipment they needed. Some students tuned in through their phones, not an easy task. “We couldn’t provide computers at first but little by little we obtained grants.” Slowly classes began to open up and today, since the pandemic, Vita is offering some online classes.
Vita‘s Student Support Council, figures out the right path to recommend for an immigrant to pursue. Since a large influx of well-educated refugees has recently signed up for help, they get a different kind of help.
“They don’t have the English; they need documents,” Mercy said. “We help them get certified for careers, get transcripts, often in the sciences.”
Vita is part of a network of social services agencies like the Opportunity Council, Family Service Association, Bucks County Housing Group and local mental health services. “We can send students to the place that can do the job,” Mercy said. Sometimes it’s in Montgomery County.
Two Bucks County Corrections officials are leading the Bucks County Reentry Coalition, which includes Vita and other social service groups so there’s a constant link and regular communication. The services meet regularly, working to prevent recidivism after inmates leave prison.
Michael Harrison, deputy chief of Adult Probation and Parole, chairs the coalition. Lou Emanuele, supervisor of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Section, is co-chair.
Vita’s role is to teach prisoners how to think more clearly about the consequences of their actions. “Learning to think more clearly can help a person feel more hopeful,” Mercy said.
Unfortunately for Bucks County, but good for her family, Mercy is moving to Boston in the fall. She and her husband, Dean, who have two sons, want to be closer to their 6-month-old grandson.
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