Two years ago, Pasco High School took a bold step towards inclusivity with the introduction of “Vistas,” the school’s first-ever bilingual yearbook. More than just a collection of photographs and memories, “Vistas” was designed to bridge the gap between non-bilingual and bilingual students within the school’s diverse community.

The first bilingual yearbook was two years ago, when we made the book called Vistas. It grew from another perspective. That idea came from the concept of having our mainstream students see what our bilingual students see every day,” yearbook advisor Susana Vidrio said.

The bilingual yearbook was born out of a desire to represent Pasco High School’s community better. One English-speaking student noticed a lack of representation and proposed showcasing the experiences of Spanish-speaking students. This idea led to the creation of Vistas, which initially prioritized Spanish content followed by English translations.

“It is important to have a bilingual yearbook because it shows representation and diversity within our book, and it better represents our community in terms of what the population we serve here in Pasco,” Susana Vidrio said.

The yearbook isn’t just about bilingualism; it’s made with it. All yearbook students participate in the process, translating body copy from English to Spanish. Bilingual students who were fluent in Spanish looked for and ensured accuracy to maintain the original tone.

“All of our yearbook students are. The process generally is that we write out our body copy, then we make sure our body copy is perfect, and then we go through and translate. We at first translate through like Google or any other translation service, and then we have our bilingual students read through it, proofread it, make sure it makes sense, and make that it mimics the same voice and sound as the English body copy,” Susana Vidrio said.

“Vistas” stands as a testament to Pasco High to diversity and inclusion, proving that a yearbook can be more than just a record of the year; it can be a bridge that connects students and celebrates the richness of the bilingual community we have here at Pasco High School. The school plans to continue making the yearbooks in Pasco High School in a bilingual format, ensuring that Spanish translations accurately reflect the English content and maintain the same voice, keeping the spirit of “Vistas” alive for the year coming and making our Spanish-speaking students feel seen and not outcast.“

The idea of visas came to us that was two years ago, through one of our English-speaking students, that of all people felt like we weren’t representing our community really well. And so they recommended that we try to show the rest of our population what our Spanish speakers are experiencing every day, which is why we put Spanish first in that book and then English. And so from then on, like last year, we did captions only in Spanish. And then this year, we wanted to see if this was something we wanted to continue. So we asked the entire student body in a poll whether we wanted to do the entire book bilingual again, and they actually wanted that. We had about 400 students participate in that survey, and I believe it was around 70-something percent of them actually wanted it in both Spanish and English, because they wanted to represent our population,” Susana Vidrio said.

This feedback solidified the decision to move forward, showing the importance of representing every student’s voice and experience.