'Proscenium' propels Maui boy to spelling bee title
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Eighth-grader Nathaniel Salazar, 13-year-old son of immigrants from the Philippines, won The Honolulu Advertiser State Spelling Bee yesterday and will fly to Washington, D.C., in May to represent Hawai'i in the national competition.
Salazar, from Maui Waena Intermediate school in Kahului, correctly spelled "proscenium" to win in the 22nd round of a contest that had judges and parents spellbound for more than two hours at Kawaiaha'o Theater at Mid-Pacific Institute.
After twelve other students plunged one after another from the tightrope of letters, it was just Salazar and eighth-grader Kelli Rice from Wheeler Middle School alone on the stage fielding words tossed at them by Advertiser columnist Lee Cataluna.
Salazar spelled "amphora." Rice countered with "theriatrics." And on it went. "Seraphic." "Prestidigitator." "Vinaigrette." "Stridulated." "Camisa."
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Then Cataluna asked Rice to spell "liege." Rice, who had spelled brilliantly and confidently all afternoon, paused, hands gripping the microphone, and looked upward for inspiration. Then she sighed and paused again.
Nathaniel Salazar of Maui Waena Intermediate School raises his arms in triumph after winning the 2003 State Spelling Bee in the 22nd round.
Could Cataluna use it in a sentence, Rice asked. "The serf bowed low before his liege lord," Cataluna said.
Another pause. Another sigh. "What part of speech?" "Adjective," Cataluna said.
Language of origin? From Latin to French to English, Cataluna said.
"Are you sure it isn't 'leeze?' " Rice asked, then stopped herself and gamely spelled out "liaise," only to hear the bell sound signaling that she was wrong.
When Salazar was given "proscenium," Rice slapped her legs and threw her head back, knowing that Salazar probably knew the word very well.
"When I heard proscenium, I knew it, but I had to calm myself down to make sure I spelled it correctly," Salazar said later, as mother Wilma, father Manuel and brother Gabriel, 6, crowded around him.
"After he was born, I watched the spelling bee, and I knew then I wanted my son to be a champion," said Manuel Salazar, who works as a security worker at the Maui airport.
"We speak three languages at home, Tagalog for my husband, Ilocano for me, and English for the children," said Wilma Salazar, a cashier at the Maui Prince Hotel who moved to Hawai'i from the Philippines in 1981.
"I was so ashamed when I was taking English classes at Maui Community College, because I knew the answers but I was shy to say them," Wilma Salazar said.
She said her son was so set on winning, after placing eighth in the Bee a year ago, that she had to force him to take breaks from four to five hours of daily study of word lists and a dictionary.
The parents promised Nathaniel the 61-inch television set he wanted if he won, "and we're going to get it for him as soon as we get home," Manuel Salazar said. Nathaniel said he likes to watch "SpongeBob Squarepants" and play action DVDs on television, as well as play video games. He plans a future in computers.
The family will fly to the national competition May 28 and 29, their travel paid for in part by The Advertiser.
Salazar also won a Webster's Third New International Dictionary; a $200 Sears merchandise certificate; a $100 U.S. Savings Bond from Jay Sugarman; a $100 cash award from Dede and James Sutherland; a Borders gift certificate from the Hawai'i Court Reporters and Captioners Association; a PDA hand-held computer from Radio Shack; and a gift basket from Island Heritage.
His principal, Jamie Yap, was presented with the traveling bee trophy and a computer, monitor and printer for the school from CompUSA thanks to Salazar's victory.
"He's a great student," Yap said of Salazar. "He helps out all the time, making the morning school announcements. He told me he was going to do it. He said, 'I am going to win this thing, Mr. Yap.' "
Host Jim Leahey of K5 Television, which broadcast the Bee last night, said all the contestants were winners.
"It is in the effort that you learn and succeed," he told the contestants before the Bee. "Only one of you will win the prize today, but it is in losing that you become strong."
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
Correction: Jay Sugarman donated a $100 U.S. savings bond, and James and Dede Sutherland donated a $100 cash award to the champion of the Hawai'i State Spelling Bee. Information on some of the prizes was incorrect in a previous version of this story.
