It’s not easy to find a city that looks like Lawrence, but where the residents habla español.

Members of the Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board said this week they were still trying to make a match with a Spanish-speaking city. Two-year-old attempts to become sister cities with Ronda, Spain, have nearly been exhausted, and board members are ready to look elsewhere.

“It’s really close to the dating process,” board member Bob Schumm said this week. “You’ve really got to find the right match for yourself.”

Kathleen Hodge, chairwoman of the board, said sister cities in other countries were possible, but the board wants to find a Spanish-speaking city.

“That’s overwhelmingly what the community’s interested in having,” she said. “Obviously, Spanish is a language studied pretty widely in the schools. That’s a pretty obvious choice for a lot of people.”

Teachers at Lawrence High School and Free State High School said they have, combined, nearly 600 students taking Spanish classes this year. The teachers said they would welcome a Spanish-speaking sister city to facilitate exchange trips for their students.

Such trips are already done with Lawrence’s sister cities of Eutin, Germany, and Hiratsuka, Japan. Lawrence students go to those cities for a few weeks of immersion in the language and culture, staying with host families there.

“They would get to do activities the normal tourist doesn’t do,” said Karen Hyde, a Spanish instructor at LHS.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Free State Spanish teacher Stu Strecker said. “I’ve participated in the one in Germany  I teach German as well  and it’s a really good experience for the kids.”

The advisory board has three criteria for a Spanish-speaking sister city:

 Somewhat equivalent to Lawrence in size.

 Economic feasibility of their residents to visit here.

 Safety of Lawrence residents traveling there.

“It really helps to have a connection of some sort,” Hodge said. “The nice thing about Ronda is that KU has study abroad over there.”

Advisory board members were at a loss to explain why the connection with Ronda hadn’t worked. But they said they would make a last try.

“We thought we were close to an agreement with them,” Schumm said. “It just went stone cold.”

The all-volunteer advisory board expects to intensify the search in the next six months.

“We’re definitely looking,” Hodge said. “But these things don’t happen overnight.”