“When I first came to Fort Hamilton High School, my now-wife, Ms. Ferrara was teaching Humanities Honors, and I realized that she was probably the best teacher that I’d ever come across. The first time I asked her out was the night that the Yankees won the World Series, and I would do anything to watch a Yankees game, but on this night, I ended up walking her home, and we sat on the steps leading up to her apartment, and she said, ‘oh, don’t you want to go and watch the game,’ and I kept finding reasons to delay, and before I knew it, I heard fireworks, the Yankees had won the World Series, but I won something better.
Being the guest speaker at the 2008 graduation was one of the highlights of my time at Fort because it was totally unexpected. I remember one day one of the students came up to me and said, ‘Mr. Alvear we need a favor’ and kids always ask me for favors, but on this day the student said, we would like you to come to our graduation. And then slowly but surely it dawned on me what they were asking. When I found out that they had voted for me to speak, I was touched. And then I got nervous because I had to write the best speech possible. It took a lot of time. And luckily, my wife, who at the time was an English teacher, destroyed everything I put in front of her because she said, ‘it’s gotta be better. It’s gotta be more you.’ But by the time we got it down, everything was important. Everything was everything I’ve been wanting to say to every kid I ever taught. It still gives me goosebumps.
I went to Fort Hamilton and I remember sitting at my graduation. At my graduation, you didn’t get called one by one, they called you row by row. And I remember my mom didn’t know where I was sitting, so I don’t have any pictures of me actually graduating from Fort Hamilton. I didn’t have the best high school experience. I didn’t feel like I was seen. I didn’t feel like I was heard. But when I was able to be up there, now I was being seen and now I was being heard. But even more, I felt like I was speaking for every kid in that audience who also at some point felt that they were marginalized, but by the time they left Fort Hamilton, they had found a place where they were appreciated, they were loved, and that they were part of something bigger than themselves and to me that was an important thing.
One thing that people don’t know about me is that I love fashion and interior design. I had a sister and she was all about fashion, music, shopping and I used to hang out with her all the time because my mother would always make her take me around and when she took me around. Over time I grew a love for fashion, for music, for interior design. And now there are times when I go to these furniture places and I will look at the way somebody set up a certain room, I’ll be like, ‘this needs a stand up lamp. And this should be over in that corner. And I think that this rug is totally not what needs to be done.’ I love interior design because I think it really says so much about you. When you go into someone’s home, it has to speak to the people there and it says something. When people come in to look at my Christmas tree, my Christmas tree is not just a decorated Christmas tree, it’s the history of my family. It’s what my wife, I and my kids have experienced. We have things that remind us of every place we’ve ever gone, every place we’ve ever been, every experience we’ve ever felt. It tells the story of who we are, and I think that in my house, every room that you go into tells a story.
As a teacher I love music. I love tv. I like film. I love books. I love every opportunity to listen to stories and to tell stories. And I think that fashion and interior design tells a story.”
