Savino Rivera, Sr.

Savino Rivera, Sr. is a bilingual educator and coach with two decades of service to the South Bend Community School Corporation. He's the child of two migrant farm workers. When his father left the family, his mother continued farm work to support him and his nine brothers and sisters. With her working almost every hour almost every day, and with no history in the U.S. school system, Savino had to navigate high school, college, and his career on his own. 

Mr. Rivera built a career providing support for local immigrant students in the South Bend Community School Corporation working under the late Maritza Robles, a celebrated school board member and advocate for local Latinx students. 

This episode was produced by Joey Meyers from the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at Indiana University South Bend; and George Garner from the IU South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center. 

Want to learn more about South Bend’s history? View the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/. 

Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/.