Describing the dialectics of theoretical versus applied linguistics and sociological data, this study compares the average achievement in French of Spanish-speaking learners (Chicanos in a southwestern university) with English-speaking monolinguals. Although Spanish and French belong to the Romance Languages and share a great number of cognates…

A number of issues related to the production of literacy materials for the Chicano children of New Mexico are discussed. First, a historical survey gives some idea of the way in which instructional materials available for use with Spanish-speaking children have contributed to cultural estrangement and alienation from their own particular home and…

Ethnographic "New Literacy Studies" question the idea that literacy as such has any uniform effects, arguing instead that effects of literacy inhere in the social practices that impart it. What change, then, does literacy produce where it arrived from two opposed sets of practices? In Quechua-and Aymara-speaking villages on the high…

Discusses the links among native language, personal identity and ethnicity. Sees language as the carrier of all the values and qualities that distinguish an individual and a people, as the prime repository of a culture, and the foundation of its institution. (MES)

Puerto Rican roots stem from the ethnic mixture of Indians, Europeans, and Africans. This article describes the advent of each of the groups on the island, the historical and cultural impact each made, and the retention of heritage among Puerto Rican migrants to the U.S. (DS)

Maintains that American public schools which are foreign to the linguistic and cultural background of Hispanic Americans alienate Hispanic American children from both their schools and their homes. Advocates that schools change their attitude in order to incorporate ethnic minority groups. (CM)

Discusses how Latina educators build bridges for themselves and those who follow, identity factors for Latinas, the growth and diversity of Latina educators their challenges along the career path, their language proficiency, interrupted schooling, perceptions of others, and workplace culture. (Author/VWL)

Issues related to bilingual bicultural education of Mexican American students are discussed in this collection of 26 articles contributed by 12 authors. The anthology focuses on the Mexican American in the Southwest and is intended primarily, though not exclusively, for the reader who is unfamiliar with the Spanish language and culture. Selections…

This resource for teachers and librarians who seek to use literature to expose students in grades K-12 to Mexican and Mexican American culture is organized in five major theme areas: customs, lifestyles, heroes, folklore, and key historical developments. Within each major area is a 4-part learning plan for each of three grade levels: K-2, 3-6, and…

This book is a collection of essays about Hispanics in America, their impact upon the social structure of American society, and implications for the country's future social agenda. Each essay is preceded by an abstract and concludes with references. The essays (and authors) are: 1) "A Demographic Portrait" (Teresa A. Sullivan); 2)…

In the last decade the phenomenal growth of bilingual/bicultural programs for Spanish-speaking people has been accompanied by a critical need for learning materials which provide current, historically accurate, nonracist and nonstereotypic information on the contributions, heritage and current status of the various Spanish-speaking groups.…