Esther Onto Porto Carreiro teaches Spanish 1, Honors Spanish 3 and Honors Spanish 5. She was born on Jan. 21, 1954 in Montevideo, Uruguay. When she was two years old, her family moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a result, she grew up bilingual: hearing and speaking Spanish at home, and Portuguese outside of her home.
After 10 years of living in Rio de Janeiro, her family moved back to Montevideo for the next 10 years, after which she returned to Rio. While in Uruguay for the second time, she attended The British School of Montevideo for high school. She later went on to attend Catholic University of America, in Washington D.C. As a child and high school student, Onto Porto Carreiro was a center forward on the field team and ran short distances for track. In high school, her favorite subjects were biology and chemistry.
“Everybody thought I would be a biochemist…my teachers thought I should be,” said Onto Porto Carreiro. “But then I did speech and drama [class].”
Onto Porto Carreiro moved to the U.S. on March 3, 1988 so that her children could be closer to their father, who had a job in the World Bank, although she had a job as well-in Brazil. Two years later, their father moved to Paris and Onto Porto Carreiro remained in the U.S. with the children in order to avoid another move for them.
She became a teacher because she wanted to spend time with and take care of her two children, then ages six and eight, while simultaneously working and studying.
“I thought that the best thing to do was to have something that when they had vacation, I also had vacation. Being a teacher in Montgomery County [would hopefully] have offered me that,” she said. “The part that I love the most is the interaction with the kids. The part I hate is correcting stuff.”
In addition to Spanish, Onto Porto Carreiro speaks English, French, Portuguese and German. In her opinion, Portuguese is a more beautiful language than Spanish. Her favorite thing about Spanish is that it is a language that will be used profusely in the years to come.
She is also a fan of college basketball, and likes to watch the occasional big soccer game, such as a match between Brazil and Uruguay.
“I love [my job,] or else I wouldn’t be doing it. I’m very passionate about it, possibly too passionate,” said Onto Porto Carreiro.
