WHO: Richardson eighth grader Antonietta Perozo Gamero.
WHAT: The National Spanish Spelling Bee, in El Paso, where fourth through eighth graders compete entirely in Spanish.
WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Antonietta Perozo Gamero was confident she knew how to spell the word she’d just been assigned, but she still took her time. First she wrote the word down. Then she asked for the definition and mouthed the word silently to herself. Finally, she heard the word repeated and wrote it down again. “I was so motivated to win in that moment,” Perozo said. “I was really listening and trying to get every piece of information that I could get to help me spell the word correctly.” She spelled “jovialidad,” or “joviality” in English, quickly and smoothly, and with that, the Richardson eighth grader won the 2024 National Spanish Spelling Bee. Her smile as the room erupted in applause perfectly illustrated the meaning of the word she’d just spelled.
The first National Spanish Spelling Bee was held in 2011, and the competition has grown every year as more participants and states have joined in. Thirty students competed this year in the two-day event, held June 26 and 27 in El Paso, after placing in their own state or regional Spanish spelling bees. Eighteen competitors came from cities across Texas, while the remaining contestants traveled from eight other states and both coasts, from Delaware to Oregon.
Perozo has competed in both English and Spanish spelling bees since she was a kindergartener, but she threw herself into preparation for the National Spanish Spelling Bee last year with single-minded focus. “I fully dedicated my life, especially this past year, to nothing but the spelling bee,” she said. “It’s very important to have the drive and the motivation to want to win.”
Although Perozo has spoken Spanish from a young age, preparing for the competition was difficult because of the huge number of words to master—she estimates she learned between seven thousand and ten thousand—and the specific spelling rules, which include accents. Perozo studied for three to eight hours every day for a year, running through flash cards during free time in class, after school, and every weekend. Pursuing spelling bee glory meant passing up other opportunities, including a Chinese language immersion camp she’d been excited to attend.
Perozo said it was “mind-blowing” to finally win after studying thousands of words—and she wasn’t the only Texan to place in the bee. Emiliano Ferran Martínez Caloca, a fifth grader from El Paso, won third place, and Fort Worth–area fifth grader Melody Hinkle went head-to-head with Perozo for nearly thirty minutes before taking second place.
Martínez Caloca and Hinkle won $1,500 and $2,500, respectively, and Perozo received a trophy and $5,000. Her winnings will go toward her college education; she’s eyeing a possible career as a lawyer. All of the contestants received medals and tablets at an awards dinner after the competition. “We consider all of the contestants to be winners since they’ve made it to this national level,” NSSB founder and coordinator David Briseño said in a press release.
The spelling bee celebrates multiculturalism and bilingualism, which Perozo calls a superpower. “Not everyone has that ability,” she said. “You have so many more opportunities and it opens so many doors, not just career-wise but in your personal life. It’s just amazing.”
