Melvin Calderón — who works for C&W Services, a cleaning company contracted by Tufts for the Medford/Somerville campus — sat in Room 313 of the Olin Center for Language and Cultural Studies during his dinner break. Next to him sat two used paper plates, a navy blue lunch box and Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel, “It Ends With Us.” As he recounted the story of how he learned to speak English, YouTube elevator music played from his iPad.
“Let me tell you this funny story,” Calderón said. “I used to have a girlfriend, [at] 19 years [old] or something like that. Her parents decided to put her in English classes, so I decided to go with her.”
Calderón was asked to take a placement test upon entry into the class and was surprised by his results. The instructor said Calderón had already learned English grammar and didn’t need to take elementary level courses. “I learned English as a teenager in my country from music,” he said. “That’s how I found out I can speak [English]. What I did was [sing] The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, you name it. … And I wasn’t the only one. A lot of my friends did it that way without knowing that we were learning.”
Calderón is from San Salvador, the large capital city of El Salvador. He is the youngest of nine siblings, three of whom currently live in the United States. He was born in 1959 and moved to the U.S. in his forties.
“It was completely easy in my case, because … I have papers. I learned English a long time ago, a very long time ago, and I know everything about a household here,” Calderón said.
In El Salvador, Calderón taught companies how to use different computer technologies. He explained that in the 80s, the leaders of many companies in El Salvador did not know how to use computer applications as tools for their company. Those who did know how to operate computers were often pushed into a career of teaching about them.
“At that time, I remember, if you [knew] simple things like a word processor, a spreadsheet [or] a database, you were a genius,” Calderón said.
Upon arrival in the U.S., Calderón took English and computer science classes at Bunker Hill Community College.
In his free time, Calderón enjoys reading, listening to music, talking with others and exploring new places on walks. He spoke of days in his past where going out took up more of his time — now, he tends toward more relaxing hobbies and errands.
“On the weekends, I used to have more fun than before, but getting old, you start changing habits. Now, my weekends are kind of shopping, supermarket, laundry and making some food for the week. Kind of boring. But anyway, I am satisfied,” he said.
Calderón has always loved reading and recently started using Goodreads to record what he’s read. Before his current Colleen Hoover novel, Calderón read, or at least attempted to read, “Dean and Me: A Love Story,” the autobiography of Jerry Lewis. He doesn’t usually like biographical texts, but he’s enjoyed a few in the past, notably Barry White’s “Love Unlimited and Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones.”
A big part of Calderón’s love for reading is what he calls his “net” of people who share books with him — primarily, his siblings, sisters-in-law and nieces. He also loves “microlibraries,” or Little Free Libraries. These are small shelves of books that people can take or give to. Calderón often visits the one in front of Paige Hall on campus. Despite living walking distance from the Boston Public Library, Calderón isn’t as privy to public libraries.
“That’s a world that I would love to get into. … That’s one of the things that, in my country, didn’t work because there was only one library and nobody goes there.”
Instead of larger libraries, Calderón opts for sharing books in his net, in Little Free Libraries and in a bookshelf that lives outside his apartment.
“I have two libraries, one in my apartment, another outside, because I feel bad trashing [books],” Calderón said. His neighbors often take books from his library outside of his apartment door.
Calderón has created a community here in Boston. His family, large and loving, exchanges books and visits each other when they can. Many of his siblings have children and, now, even grandchildren. This doesn’t make it easy to come out on top but, Calderón said, “I’m still the favorite uncle.”
