Freire-Bracho Sparks Love as a Substitute

Arturo Freire-Bracho, a Cuban native, carries his love for teaching when he moves to America. He finds a love for Bullitt East after teaching for a surplus of schools.

BY SIERRA KARNER

Living the best of both worlds, getting the opportunity to teach in Cuba and America.

Arturo Freire-Bracho makes a lasting impression on the community, in just a short time.

Freire-Bracho grew up in a town in the northeast of Cuba, in the town of Artemisa. He started teaching in Cuba, teaching a variety of subjects. After traveling to America, he faced difficulties but continued a career in teaching.

Freire-Bracho grew up in one of Cuba’s biggest cities, Artemisa. Artemisa was a large, important city to Cuba then and now. When Freire-Bracho was young, his father came to America in hopes to bring his son and his wife. Unfortunately Freire-Bracho’s father was the only one able to come to America.“My dad decided in 1965 but when we got the opportunity to come the government didn’t let me. I was 15 and you were supposed to be into the military. My mom was with me and he hoped that he could bring us but he couldn’t. So I’ve never seen him again,” Freire-Bracho said. Freire-Bracho waited for his father before telling himself that he needs to move on and live life.

Freire-Bracho enjoys helping others, and advocate for others. He is adamant about chess and coached others while in Cuba. In Cuba, chess is played everywhere; Cubans play on the sidewalk, school, on the street, etc. “I was living under a dictatorship, under Batista. I grew up playing chess. I had a normal life, not really bad. In the 1990s, I was a college professor teaching physics. When the Soviet Union fell, Cuba was so difficult. It became really sad and hard for me,” FreireBracho said. Freire-Bracho had a student that he “coached” in chess to open his own chess academy. He was also a college professor where he taught physics. He found a love for physics after teaching and decided to teach.

When he came to America after working a couple of jobs in between, he became a teacher again. He applied to 17 teaching jobs before deciding to teach at Bullitt Central. At Bullitt

Central, he was a Spanish teacher for 10 years before retiring. After retiring, he became a sub for Bullitt County and started substitute teaching for Bullitt East in 2018. Once COVID hit, Freire-Bracho took a break from subbing before returning earlier this year. He first subbed for Kristy Tinelli and realized that Bullitt East was a special place. “When you retire, you have some kind of restrictions. So I was waiting, I didn’t start at Bullitt East; I knew Bullitt East existed, I knew Bullitt Central. One day when I came here and when I came here it was like love at first sight. In my perception, teaching for more than 50 years teaching in two different countries, it’s a really good school,” Freire-Bracho said. After substituting that first day, he decided he was only going to substitute teach at Bullitt East from there on out.

Language is still a difficult barrier for Freire-Bracho but he still persists through substitute teaching. Freire-Bracho sets himself aside from other substitute teachers. He goes out of his way to interact with the students he has throughout the day. “Take something whatever it is, it doesn’t matter what you do if you go to college or not, or if you don’t go anywhere, try to do your best,” Freire-Bracho said. You can often find him in the hallway speaking with other teachers or students during class change. “For students, it’s information, for me it’s knowledge. If they want I help them to build their knowledge. Just they (students) can do it, nobody can learn for you,” Freire-Bracho said. He enjoys connecting with people here and sharing his knowledge.

Freire-Bracho enjoys teaching high school students. It’s definitely different from teaching at a university as a professor. He enjoys seeing new and old students when he substitutes.

“What high school tries to do is give you a spectrum of possibilities and you are going to make a decision. Your decision may be wrong, but it’s trial and error, this is what life is. You can fix it but do whatever you love. You don’t know what you are going to love later but if you test something and you really love it, do it. The day is 24 hours for