This study counters the popular assumption that Spanish Heritage Language Learners (SHLLs) on study abroad (SA) in a place of cultural origin can easily adapt and find acceptance due to the linguistic and cultural resources they bring with them. Our study builds on previous work to illustrate a more nuanced and complex story of desires for…

Research on Latinx students studying abroad is minimal. As such, our primary research question for this study was: What are the identity-oriented experiences of Latinx students of color on a short-term study abroad program? We use a decolonial theoretical perspective to frame our study. The overarching assertion of a "decolonial journey of…

Dual language immersion (DLI) programs have emerged in the U.S. as effective ways to bring together language minority and language majority speakers in school settings with the goal of bilingualism and bi-literacy for all. However, the proliferation of these programs has raised concerns regarding issues of inequity and dissimilar power dynamics in…

Using a White racial frame as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the relationship between two Latina bilingual education teachers and their White colleagues. A qualitative analysis reveals that the participants demonstrated effective teaching skills using their cultural attributes. However, the participants' competence stirred…

Immigration from Mexico and Central America to the United States has resulted in dramatic demographic changes in communities across the country since the early 1990s. Newcomers and longstanding residents make sense of and construct their shared society and the rules and norms by which they live alongside one another, and this construction of…

Though definitions vary, the literature on heritage speakers of Spanish identifies two primary attributes: a linguistic and cultural connection to the language. This article profiles four Anglo college students who grew up in bilingual or Spanish-dominant communities in the Southwest who self-identified as Spanish heritage speakers, citing…

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) educate nearly two-thirds of the Hispanic/Latinx students who attend college. Yet little is known about the student populations they serve. Findings from two NSF-funded surveys completed with students at 14 HSIs in Texas and New Mexico in 2018 and four HSIs in TX in 2019 are presented. The combined sample was…

Listeners ("N" = 543) in grades 4, 5, and 6 rated their preference for 10 instrumental and vocal selections from various styles, including four popular music selections with versions performed in English, Spanish, or an Asian language. Participants estimated their identification with Spanish/Hispanic/Latino and Asian cultures, the number…

A developmental model of children's understanding of nationality (Nationality Perspective-Taking Ability or NPTA) was proposed and evaluated in this study. The NPTA model expands extant definitions and provides a theoretical foundation for the developmental progression of national identity. Children (Mean age = 9.33 years) from Latin American and…

Recent evidence suggests that culture is a dynamic construct activated in response to cues encountered in a given situation. Research on acculturation indicates that this is a complex construct that might be domain specific. Two studies were undertaken to investigate the effect of two ways of priming culture on acculturation and enculturation…

This article discusses the complex and subtle reasons why many people of Spanish-speaking ancestry, both Latin Americans and Spaniards, like to call themselves Latinos. Among other things, this word, coined by the Mediterranean countries to resist Anglo dominance in the 19th century, is currently being used by people of Spanish-speaking ancestry…

This book offers an ethnographic account of language socialization practices within Mexican-background families residing in California and Texas. It illustrates cases where language is used by speakers to choose between alternative self-definitions and where language interacts differentially with other defining categories (ethnicity, gender, and…

This essay recreates the exciting Latin music and dance scenes of post-World War II Southern California, showing how Mexican Americans produced and consumed a range of styles and, in the process, articulated their complex cultural sensibilities. By participating in a Spanish-language expressive culture that was sophisticated and cosmopolitan,…

Addresses the question of how constraints are established by which Hispanicity is determined vis-a-vis language. It argues that, if Spanish-English bilingualism comes to prevail among American Hispanics, they will lose the Spanish language as a mother tongue and their distinct culture, becoming an Anglophone subculture similar to Irish or Italian…

Language switching (language alternation, code switching), the rapid alternation from one language to another, may or may not convey more than the cognitive significance of the message. Linguists have demonstrated the metaphorical or connotative significance of switching, but have not fully discussed the various forms switching takes. The present…