En español, it’s called El Concurso de Ortografía -- but in any language, it means all of the fun, excitement, and tension of a traditional spelling bee. 

Students at seven Rio Rancho schools are busily memorizing Spanish words and pronunciations in preparation for Rio Rancho’s fifth annual Spanish Spelling Bee.  The event was held on Tuesday, March 18 (martes el 18 de marzo), at 8:45 AM pm at Shining Stars Pre-School, 4477 9th Ave. NE.

Winning the Rio Rancho Public Schools Spanish Spelling Bee was no problema for Mountain View Middle School sixth grader Karla del Cid, who dueled Rio Rancho Mid-High eighth grader Tania Herrera mano a mano for 17 grueling rounds to snare the victory.  Her winning words were época -- epoch or the date of an event -- and problema, problem. 

This was Señorita del Cid’s third trip to the district Spanish-language bee.  Previously she had finished eighth and fourth.  Fifteen students participated in the event, which in all lasted 22 rounds. 

The Spanish Spelling Bee is similar to the annual district Spelling Bee for English-language words.  Students spell Spanish words using the Spanish alphabet, pronunciation, and characters.  For example, students must include the accent when spelling the word adiós, and the “ñ” in spelling mañana. 

Students from Colinas del Norte Elementary, Ernest Stapleton Elementary, Puesta del Sol Elementary, Rio Rancho Elementary, Vista Grande Elementary, Lincoln Middle School, Mountain View Middle School, and Rio Rancho Mid-High School competed in the bee, which is open to students in grades 4 – 8.  Each school may send two spellers to the bee.  The bee also included one home-schooled participant. 

Señorita del Cid’s will represent Rio Rancho Public Schools at the New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education’s regional spelling bee in late April.  Señorita Herrera will be the alternate in case the winner cannot compete.