Centro Cultural, Intel bridge 'digital divide' with classes

Latinos learn to navigate the Internet with help from computer-geek volunteers

By Nancy Townsley

Pamplin Media Group, Aug 6, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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Rogelio Rodriguez is happy he could help – on two fronts.

Rodriguez, 18, a 2009 graduate of Forest Grove High School, was recruited to be part of a program that’s been bringing lessons in technology to hundreds of Latinos in western Washington County.

Over the last two years, he figures he’s tutored 19 people in the use of a laptop and the Internet while teaching many of them English skills as well.

“Some of them couldn’t read very well, and they didn’t know how to operate a computer,” said Rodriguez, who was an Intel 4-H Tech Wizard for four years during his high school career.

He showed men, women and teens how to surf the Internet and protect themselves against online identity theft. A few of them started with the absolute basics.

“One person didn’t know how to turn the computer on,” Rodriguez said.

Only 2 percent

The computer literacy program, called “Adelante con Tecnologia,” is Intel Corp.’s effort to bridge a digital divide in the county. Six years ago, Intel managers teamed up with Centro Cultural in Cornelius to increase computer literacy among people in the growing Hispanic population.

Since May 2003, about 4,870 people have been introduced to computer technology through home visits conducted by “tech wizards” trained by Intel, said Sabino Sardineta, executive director of Centro Cultural, a nonprofit serving Hispanic residents in the county.

“The project was the result of a survey showing that 60 percent of households in Hillsboro and the surrounding area used technology, while only 2 percent of Latino households had access to the Internet at home,” said Sardineta.

He knew the cultural divide needed a bridge – and together, the computer chip-making giant and the nonprofit built one.

Wireless wonder

These days the program is going a step further, bringing more Hispanic households into the 21st century with help from a new wireless product called WiMAX.

The product, a global technology now available in the Portland-metropolitan area, allows subscribers to log on wherever they go with their PC – in a restaurant, at the mall and even in their car.

“Intel’s WiMAX product is a chip that goes inside a laptop and lets it access the Internet practically anywhere,” said Stephen Kuo, an Intel marketing manager in Santa Clara, Calif. “It virtually eliminates the need to locate a wireless hotspot.

“With this technology the whole city becomes your hotspot instead of the little café.”

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