Angela Couret's phone rings in the middle of Spanish Conversation Club, and instead of silencing it, she puts it on speaker.
It's her son. He's just closed on his first apartment. For a brief moment, the grammar worksheets and vocabulary lists are set aside as nearly a dozen club members lean in to listen and celebrate with her.
It's a small moment, but it captures exactly what keeps almost 60 regular members coming back to the Headquarters Branch Library week after week: The club is more a family than a class.
Angela Couret, a 58-year-old Cuban and UF ‘76 romance languages alumnus, has volunteered at the Spanish Conversation Clubs at the Headquarters Branch Library for roughly two years.
Couret grew up between Cuba and Venezuela and spent decades working as an interpreter for a chemical trading company in Venezuela.
After her son, Alberto, was born with an intellectual disability, she created a nonprofit called Paso-a-Paso in Venezuela supporting children with disabilities and their families.
When the family moved back to Gainesville, she said, she missed that sense of purpose. So, when the library's literacy department needed a volunteer to lead Spanish conversation practice, she signed on.
"It's been really a blessing to have that outlet, because personally I needed to have a place to get back to the community," Couret said. "I've always believed in that, and I've been a library user forever."
As a part of a literacy program, her son Alberto has a mentor who meets with him and provides books at no cost, she said. The library also hosts job fairs and internet literacy classes for older residents learning to navigate technology. Couret credits the resources for her dedication to giving back to the community.
"It's important that people in the community know that this exists," she said. "They have lots of things that are free and open access for people."
The club follows a loose but consistent rhythm each week. Couret opens with a review of common grammar points to level the playing field, since fluency varies widely among newer arrivals and near-native speakers.
From there, the group moves into literature and current events. Couret writes her own briefs on topics she thinks will spark conversation, pulling stories from news outlets like El País and BBC Mundo. She runs them through an AI tool to simplify the reading level so beginners aren't left behind.
At July 25’s meeting, the reading topic was Christopher Nolan's adaptation of "The Odyssey." The group often shifts to fun activities like roleplay and improvisation, acting out scenarios in Spanish that range from ordering at a restaurant to bantering about the week's news.
For Couret, the club has always meant more than grammar drills. She didn’t hesitate to explain how a club like hers matters at a time when conversations about language and culture can feel especially taboo.
"It's vital for people to value each other's cultures and their backgrounds and the effort that people make to thrive," Couret said.
She pointed to her own experience raising a son with a disability; people carry preconceived notions until they actually meet someone, she said, and then everything changes.
"When you meet [some]one, you don't think about their disability,” she said. “You think about Alberto, or you think about Veronica — the person — and then it totally shifts your perspective.”
Dean Mimms, a 1987 UF alumnus and retired environmental and city planner for Gainesville and Miami-Dade County, is one of the club’s newest and most animated members.
Mimms has been a Spanish speaker for decades, tracing his love for the language back to a middle school teacher who "was able to get through to me,” he said.
His love for the language persisted throughout high school and into college as he spent a semester studying in Mexico City at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a time he calls one of the best experiences of his life.
He found the conversation club almost by accident, spotting a flyer at one of the city pools he swims at. Mimms believed the club could be a fun way to speak Spanish again as a Gainesville retiree.
Mimms assumed the club might be a light refresher; instead, he found himself shocked by everyone’s varied expertise.
"It's more advanced than I imagined,” Mimms said. “But I figured it'd be fun and good, keep my brain going at advancing age."
Mimms encouraged Spanish language learners to keep on speaking despite imperfections.
"Don't be shy about making a fool of yourself,” he said. “If you get invited to somebody's house, or somebody wants to drink coffee with you, just do it. Two-year-olds speak Spanish. So can you."
Weyna Rowe, a Taiwanese UF class of 2014 physics doctoral alumnus, has attended the club for almost a year. The club has helped her find new ways to connect with Gainesville's sizable Hispanic community, she said.
She recalled using her new vocabulary with strangers in public who don't speak English and found that knowing even the simplest Spanish phrases, like asking for someone’s name, was enough to spark a real conversation.
"They were super excited, and we started to have [a] small chat, even though my Spanish is terrible," Rowe said.
She encouraged curious language learners to persist and continue trying.
"Just keep trying,” she said. “It's not going to be easy, but the intention is most important.”
The Spanish Conversation Club meets weekly on Fridays at 4:30 p.m. at the downtown Headquarters Library on University Avenue.
Contact Aaron Zagal Yaji at azagal@alligator.org. Follow him on X @azagalyaji.
Aaron Zagal Yaji is a Public Relations and Economics freshman in his first semester at The Alligator. He covers El Caimán's metro beat. In his free time, he enjoys going to the beach (or reminiscing about it), cooking Peruvian food, and squandering his money on golden shiny things.
