By Raúl Gavarrette O.
Granada, the first colonial city in Nicaragua, was unspoiled in regards to language programs. The first Spanish program that opened in Granada was Casa Xalteva in 1995. This school was founded by Ken Carpenter and Gregory Calvert. They had arrived in Granada in the early 90’s and fell in love with the tranquility of the Granada city by those years. They moved to this colonial city. They main reason to open a language program was that they were motivated to help the street kids in the city. They started the Casa Xalteva School as a humanitarian project to use income generated by the language Spanish school to try putting those kids back into the school system. Greg and Ken trained the first candidates as Spanish instructors and those were not necessarily graduated teachers or professionals. As Carpenter and Calvert had a good connection with an American university who sent students to learn Spanish in Nicaragua, the project became successful, bringing lots of students and volunteers and the school established itself as the first formal Spanish school in Granada.
The same year 1996, another Spanish language academy started operation in Granada, One-on-One Tutoring Academy operated by Mr. Róger Ramírez. This school offered Spanish one-on-one instruction. In those years this Spanish Academy became very popular and gained reputation among backpackers who visited the city and wanted to learn Spanish.
