Buenaventura Lakes Tutors

About Buenaventura Lakes

Six years ago Luis Cabrera moved from Cuba to Buenaventura Lakes and joined their club baseball team. Originally Cabrera’s father immigrated to the United States and then he went back to Cuba to get his son. Now Cabrera has a whole family here, with a stepmother and his grandmother too. When he moved he knew very little English, but as his language skills improved so did his Baseball skills, and he quickly developed into one of the teams biggest assets. Now, a short six years later, he has been voted the “Osceola News-Gazette Baseball Player of the Year.”

According to Buenaventura tutors, school level baseball and other recreational activities and sports are less well organized in Cuba. Baseball is very popular there, but the country is incredibly poor in comparison to the U.S. so it is not so easy to come by equipment for the children to play. Children in Cuba are much more resourceful when it comes to playtime and will use old tree branches as bats and discarded water bottles as balls. Somehow they manage to keep themselves entertained. Cabrera was luckier than most with more access to equipment growing up as his father assisted in the nation’s youth baseball program.

Another major difference in the schooling is the quality of education, and discipline taught in the U.S., even in the poorest communities. Cabrera enrolled into Gateway High and was used to a mentality where students put in the minimum amount of effort and some days simply didn’t show up. Cabrera was not aware of the repercussions, but when he received his results and found out he did not qualify for athletics he soon changed his attitude and became one of the most focused students in his year. Unlike his fellow club teammates when Cabrera arrived in the U.S. he spoke no English (save a few phrases) and found it difficult to fit in. The other members of the team were also Hispanic but they spoke English fluently and Cabrera felt isolated. It took months for him to warm up to the new environment and to make friends. Cabrera worked hard to understand the English language by committing phrases to memory and then repeating it, eventually it started to stick and now he speaks English fluently.

Buenaventura Lakes' tutors love a success story, especially in this instance, as they know that for Cabrera the move from Cuba to the U.S was particularly difficult. To go from a shy, unhappy boy to a strong passionate young man who is leading the team to new levels of success is something Buenaventura tutors are incredibly proud of.