By Raúl Gavarrette O.
In the 1990´s, Granada, the first colonial city in Nicaragua, the jewel of Central America, was yet an unspoiled market in regards of Spanish language programs. Spanish language schools in Granada, Nicaragua, began in the mid-1990s as a wave of post-revolution tourism and humanitarian projects.
FIRST WAVE: THE BOOM OF THE 1990’S
In the early 90’s, during their tourist visits to Granada, a couple of North American retirees’ travellers Ken Carpenter and Gregory Calvert fell in love of this Nicaraguan destination and moved to the colonial city. Soon after moving to Granada, these pioneers started Casa Xalteva Spanish School in 1994/1995, as a humanitarian project. The main reason to open a language program was the motivation to help the street kids wondering in the city, and use the income generated by the language Spanish school to try putting those kids back into the school system, and support them by using language class revenues. Greg and Ken trained the first candidates to be Spanish instructors and those were not necessarily graduated teachers or professionals in the language teaching field.
The project became successful and the school established itself as the first formal Spanish school in Granada. They had a good connection with an American university who would send volunteers and students for learning Spanish in Nicaragua. That was how the first Spanish school opened in Granada focused on blended language immersion with local community support, sparking a thriving hub for international students. Before 1994 there was not any Spanish school in Granada downtown.
Another Spanish language academy that started operation in Granada, was One-on-One Tutoring Academy in 1996 operated by Mr. Róger Ramírez. This school offered Spanish one-on-one instruction. Due to the one-on-one lessons low cost, this Academy became very popular and gained reputation among backpackers who visited the city and tried learning some Spanish.
Almost at the end of the 90´s Nicaragua had become more popular as a new destination for tourism in Central America and entrepreneurs from North America were attracted by the potential the country projected. In 1997, a new language school Project was started in Nicaragua by entrepreneur Paul Martin from the United States and Professor Raúl Gavarrette, the Nicaraguan representative and Executive Coordinator. This was the original brand Nicaragua Spanish Schools (NSS).
Since the beginning NSS intended to be an international agency to represent and market the already established Spanish language schools in Granada and other cities. NSS agreed with the Spanish schools to open an office in the United States and a branch in Nicaragua to represent them. Due to many facts this enterprise was unsuccessfully and then, the NSS team decided to open their own Spanish language school in Granada. That is when in 1997 they started the Nicaragua Spanish Schools network in Granada. Since that same year, Professor Raul Gavarrette, NSS Executive National Coordinator led continuous training workshops in administration and management of the school, design and arrangement of excursions, and language teaching technique workshops of Spanish as a second language. The Spanish school staff was trained in preparation for the first group of high school students who arrived in January 1998.
The first group of high school students from the United States brought by NSS in the same year 1998, made the team prioritize ahead preparation on setting up the organization and opening of the Palacio de Cultura Spanish School in Granada. Sandra Espinoza Madrigal, a prominent member of the Asociación de Promotores de Cultura (APC) in Granada was chosen by NSS team as the first and long-lasting Director. The former instructors at the Palacio de Cultura Spanish language School in Granada were Margarita Karam, Silvia Madrigal, María Haydee Méndez, María Adilia Espinoza and Karla Pérez. Darling González, Nubia Calero and María Elena Rodríguez were visitor instructors.
Sandra Espinoza, the former Director was trained by the NSS Executive team, in organizing field trips for the students and was also trained in administrative management for the new language school. Weekly workshops about techniques for the teaching of the Spanish as a second language were organized by NSS Executive team for the new Spanish language instructors at the school in Granada. Bismarck Calero, María Elena Rodríguez and Raúl Gavarrette the Executive Coordinator and Representative of NSS were the teacher trainers in the original Granada Spanish school .
The following years after foundation, were successful for all the Nicaragua Spanish Schools network. The number of instructors increased. At the end of that year Raul Gavarrette the Executive Director left the NSS and moved to Costa Rica to cooperate in a prominent Spanish abroad program for both countries Costa Rica and Nicaragua teaching Spanish for Universities from The United States.
SECOND WAVE: THE SPINOFF SCHOOLS
After many years of being the strongest language program in Nicaragua, internal shifts and entrepreneurial impulses led to a decentralization of NSS teaching staff, and finally disbanded in 2006 in part due to their massive instructors who wanted somehow independence and wanted to start their own Spanish schools motivated by commercial vision of the new industry. That was the origin of all the spinoff schools in Granada. Cocibolca Spanish School opened in Granada. That same year more Spanish schools opened in Granada among them Ave Nicaragüita.
INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS
Former Proyecto Lingüístico Eco-Cultural– now Instituto Lingüístico Inter-Cultural -, is the only non-spinoff school. This professional language school opened in 2004.
THIRD WAVE: THE SPINOFF OF PREVIOUS SPINOFF SCHOOLS
Cocibolca Spanish School disbanded in 2007 due also to intern conflicts between its instructors and that fact originated two new Spanish schools: Spanish School Express, and Nicaragua Mía Spanish School both located in Granada city. Then the Casa Nica spinoff school separated from Nicaragua Mia. Every single one of the former Spanish instructors wanted to have their own Spanish school as they saw business opportunities in this industry. APC´s Spanish Schools managed by the Asociación de Promotores de Cultura which wanted a piece of the cake, also started school programs with a commercial vision in the Palacio de Cultura building in Granada.
In 2010 other schools opened: Sol Spanish School in Granada whose director was former NSS Sandra Espinoza Madrigal; Spanish Lingua in Granada in 2010; Spanish Dale founded in 2014 in Granada. The founders of Casa Xalteva moved back to the United States in 2008 and passed the responsibility and administration to a local instructor they had trained in the early years. This new Casa Xalteva has not the former vision of the founders, where tuition would help funding local community social projects.
The economic situation in Nicaragua in 2018 hardly hit the industry in Granada where some of the Spanish schools closed permanently.
END OF THE BOOM
At present it seems that the strong Spanish school’s boom of the 90´s in Nicaragua has seriously decreased and come to a stage where some of the owners have decided to find other ways to do trading and considered closing schools. International high price of oil has caused an increasement of flights ticket cost, and it is one of the facts for which a few travelers are coming. No new serious schools have opened in Granada since 2022. Below are the Spanish language schools currently opened in Granada, Nicaragua.
LIST OF CURRENT SPANISH SCHOOLS OPERATING IN GRANADA:
Instituto Lingüístico Inter-Cultural
SOL Spanish school
Casa Nica School
Spanish Dale
Casa Xalteva
One-on-one tutoring
