Casa Xalteva was founded in 1995 by Dr.Ken Carpenter and Dr.Gregory Calvert with the purpose of taking kids off the streets and putting them back into the school system. Don Ken and Don Gregory, as they are referred to in Casa Xalteva, arrived in Granada in the early 90’s and immediately fell in love with it. It was then that they decided to buy a house to be used as a Spanish school with the intent to use income generated by Spanish Instruction to fund the program and house kids from the streets, including kids from abusive families, and kids with drug problems. The main focus was for these kids to become productive adults thru education and a stable home environment.

It was not an easy task but Don Ken and Don Gregory were determined to make it work. They moved to Granada and devoted their time to this project. Don Ken and Don Gregory lived in Granada for the following 3 years, devoting themselves to training teachers to teach Spanish to foreigners, maintaining the children, and putting the whole project on its feet. Unfortunately after three years they had to make the hard decision of going back to the University of New Mexico in order to work and provide additional funding to help the project continue.