Language Goes To School

Albuquerque, New Mexico, was a part of Nueva España, or New Spain, for nearly 300 years, before it became part of Mexico and later the United States. It’s no wonder, then, that its ties to Spain remain strong. El Instituto Cervantes de Albuquerque goes a long way toward maintaining those ties, as it offers Spanish language classes and leveled Spanish certification programs, cultural events, film festivals, public school collaboration, and more. Our guest on this episode is Carlos Madrid, an historian by training and the current director of the Instituto. He’s the perfect person for the job, as his area of expertise is the Spanish diaspora in the Pacific, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Guam, where he has recently lived and conducted research. The diaspora also includes the Americas, which is where Albuquerque fits in. Listen as we learn more about El Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish presence in the Americas, indigenous language diversity in Spain and in the Americas, and, of course, the 2026 World Cup! 

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Racial segregation in public schools was not restricted to the South. Since 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson separate-but-equal doctrine was practiced nationwide, including in California. Until the 1940s, there were laws on the books in California that allowed for the segregation of Asian Americans and Native Americans from Anglo (White) Americans. However, there was no law permitting the segregation of Mexican Americans. But that didn’t stop the Westminster, California, school board from building separate schools for Mexican-American students, schools that, as you will hear, were far from equal. 

But in 1944, Sylvia Mendez, an 8-year-old Mexican-American student, along with her family and many other families, started a movement that culminated in a successful lawsuit against the Westminster Board of Education. They won their case in the federal district court in Los Angeles in 1945, then won again in 1947 in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, after the school district appealed that loss. Had the school board appealed their loss, the case would have likely ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court. But no appeal was filed. That’s one reason why people across the country can tell you all about Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, but little or nothing about Westminster v. Mendez in 1947. 

Nonetheless, the case of Sylvia and her family took to court in the mid 1940s was a necessary step in the struggle to end segregation in the U.S. public schools once and for all. Listen as we tell the story of this famous case from California. And, in our last installment of Name That Term, we discuss the difference between bilingualism and diglossia. 

Education Week interview with Sylvia Mendez: https://youtu.be/SIMWdfSxoh8?si=e-CdmMpmoxY_HdYN

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In this episode, we speak with Olivia Flores, a dynamic young bilingual educator from Chicago, who now calls herself a proud transplant to Kansas City, Missouri. Bilingual education in the heart of the Midwest? Well, yes. Of course! Due to recent increases in the number of Spanish-speaking immigrants to the Midwest, often due to the meat and poultry processing and home construction industries, the Midwest has experienced an impressive increase in the number of first-language Spanish-speaking students enrolled in its public schools. (Other immigrant groups and languages have also been represented in these increases, but Spanish-speaking immigrants by far represent the largest single group.) Because of the 1974 Lau v. Nichols U.S. Supreme Court decision, mandating that schools accommodate the language needs of students—instead of the other way around—school districts in the Midwest have had to implement instructional strategies that effectively address both the students’ language needs, as well as their overall academic needs. As has been the case in the Western and Southwestern United States, dual-language education, where core subject areas are taught in two languages, has proven to be the most effective instructional strategy for English learners in the Midwest, as well. As a native Midwesterner and a fluent speaker of Spanish—having lived in both Argentina and Colombia—Olivia Flores is the type of educator best suited for the challenges inherent in the implementation of a valuable pedagogical approach still relatively new to the region. Listen as she explains shared as well as unique features of bilingual education in Kansas City, Missouri, the heart of the American Midwest. We also discuss code-switching and translanguaging.

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Rafe Martinez didn’t become a leader in deaf education in New Mexico because he’s deaf. He’s not. He became a leader in deaf education because his son was born deaf, and Rafe and the rest of the family needed to communicate with him. But Rafe quickly discovered that American Sign Language, or ASL, is not just for deaf students and their families. It’s also for hearing students whose parents are deaf. These students are known as CODA, or Children Of Deaf Adults. Then there are hearing students, whose special needs include the need to communicate through sign language because they are unable to communicate verbally. Finally, there are students who aren’t deaf, whose parents aren’t deaf, and who don’t have special needs. These students simply want to be fluent in two languages. But instead of pairing English with another oral language, such as Spanish, French, Mandarin, or Diné, they pair English with ASL. The problem was, however, that there were no schools in New Mexico that accommodated all four groups of students. So, Rafe created one himself, with the help of others interested in broadening the reach and influence of sign language as a mainstream instructional language. The result of their efforts is the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy, founded in 2008 as the only state-certified English-ASL dual-language school in New Mexico, and quite possibly in the United States. In this episode, Rafe relates his experiences with his son, Ben, the founding of the school, and much more. We even discuss Puerto Rican sign language interpretation at the 2026 Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show! Also addressed is language interdependence and language transfer. 

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Those who don't speak the dominant language of their region as their first language know all too well that language status—and the consequences of it—are real. Without being entirely conscious of it, all societies have developed language hierarchies that place some languages in positions of prestige, at or near the top of the hierarchy, while relegating other languages to positions of subordination, at or near the bottom of the hierarchy. This is most evident in regions where, long ago, a colonial language established its dominance by declaring its superiority, while simultaneously suppressing the use of the indigenous languages that had been present in the region since the beginning of time. In this episode, we hear how awareness of language statuses played out in a remote Baoulé village in central Côte d'Ivoire in the mid 1980s when a woman from the village took a visitor from the United States to school, so to speak, regarding the topic of language hierarchies. We learn some handy Baoulé proverbs along the way. Also discussed: threatened languages and moribund languages. 

Marie's Dictionary: The Last Speaker of Wukchumni: https://youtu.be/iRDmRXCizEM?si=D0H3T4CHUCqYRi3l

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On this episode of Language Goes to School, we speak with Molly Arévalo, a lifelong educator and language learner, whose journey reflects the complexity of heritage language identity. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Molly was raised in an English-only household in the mainland U.S. She later worked intentionally to reclaim Spanish as an academic, professional, and personal language. She studied Spanish and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz (go Banana Slugs!), refined her Spanish while living in Chile, and began her teaching career with Teach For America on the U.S.–Mexico border in South Texas. Molly went on to teach bilingual elementary students, adult ESL and citizenship classes, and Spanish in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, earning two master’s degrees from California State University, Los Angeles in Bilingual/Multicultural Education and TESOL. She now serves as Associate Director of the Language Learning Center at the University of New Mexico, where she supports language learning across campus. Still studying French, while keeping her ambitions focused on several other languages, Molly embodies the idea that language learning is never finished.  

To see a photo of Molly holding her award, go to Instagram and search for @unmllc. The photo was posted on February 19, 2026.

To listen to Ben Wilson on ESPN radio, go to: 

https://cagedminds.com/2026/02/caged-minds-fight-hour-ep-4-ben-wilson-on-bob-foster/

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This is the true story of a boy we will call Ricardo, who was an enthusiastic young 4th grader in a Spanish-English dual-language classroom circa 2011. Due to circumstances completely beyond his control, Ricardo had by 4th grade essentially stopped speaking his native Spanish in favor of English. This was the case at school, where at least his preference for English was appropriate half the time. But it was also the case at home, where everyone in his family had continued to communicate almost exclusively in Spanish since the family’s move to the United States from South America. Everyone, that is, except Ricardo. Listen as we learn about the events that led to Ricardo’s loss of Spanish, and how he eventually started speaking it again. We also discuss language interpreters and language brokers. They’re not the same thing.

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If you live in the United States and are familiar with only one decision handed down by a court of law, it’s probably the U.S. Supreme Court case known as Brown v. Board of Education. Specifically, that would be young Linda Brown, only nine years old when she sued her local Board of Education for sending her to an all-black school a mile and a half from her house, when there was a perfectly good white school right around the corner. But did you know this racial discrimination did not occur in the Deep South? It occurred in Topeka, Kansas, out on the Great Plains, halfway to California. And guess what? Race-based school segregation extended the rest of the way to California, as well. In fact, it was in 1931 that another young student, 12-year-old Roberto Álvarez, sued the Lemon Grove, California, Board of School Trustees for trying to separate him and 74 of his Mexican-American classmates from their Anglo classmates and send them instead to a “new” school that they and their parents considered no better than a caballeriza, or horse stables. Roberto won that case in San Diego County Superior Court, making it the first successful school desegregation case in U.S. history. In fact, it served as the earliest precedent for the Brown decision 23 years later. Listen as we tell the story of Álvarez v. Lemon Grove, one of the most important court cases in U.S. history that most people have never heard of. 

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In this episode, we visit with Ishtar Rosario Medina, whose educational and personal journey has spanned Puerto Rico, New York City, Mississippi, New Mexico, and now Minnesota. She was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the tradition of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Manhattan and Queens. At the age of 7, she returned to the island. Six years later, her path took an unconventional turn when her father implemented his idea of "homeschooling": enrolling her in his college courses at the University of Mayagüez. At 13, she was majoring in physics. 

Despite often excelling beyond the levels of her older classmates, Ishtar dropped out and began a series of moves across the U.S. with her father, from central Florida to community college life in rural Mississippi, to several years as a substitute teacher in Hattiesburg—all while raising her oldest child. Inspired by her mother’s love for New Mexico, she later relocated to Albuquerque, where, after 12 years of accumulating college credits, she completed a BA in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts and TESOL at the University of New Mexico. She briefly taught 4th grade at a local charter school.

A spontaneous trip to the Mall of America over Thanksgiving vacation in 2024 led to her current role teaching U.S. History in Spanish and Spanish Language Arts at the high school in Chanhassen, Minnesota. 

As a lifelong bilingual learner, parent, and educator, Ishtar brings a rich perspective to discussions of bilingual education. Listen, enjoy, and learn from the stories behind her remarkable journey.

We also discuss SUP and CUP, which, in case you're wondering, are not acronyms for Stand Up Paddle and Conditional Use Permit!

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In this episode of Language Goes to School, we speak with Ina Montoya, lifelong educator, proud Jicarilla Apache (father’s side) and Navajo (mother’s side), and tireless advocate for the revitalization of Indigenous education in general, and Indigenous languages in particular. After years of teaching in the Dulce Independent School District of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, Ina recently served as the district's superintendent, a term that culminated in being named the 2024 Administrator of the Year by the New Mexico Association of Bilingual Education. She is currently the principal of Lybrook Elementary and Middle School, located conveniently—and, more importantly, in perfect familial and geographic balance—between the traditional lands of the Jicarilla Apache and Navajo Nations in northwestern New Mexico. No matter the role in education she fills, Ina applies the warmth, humor, and dedication from every circle of her life to her efforts to promote high-quality Indigenous and language education. Consistent with her lifelong history of learning, Ina is currently pursuing a doctorate in Missiology. And if you’re wondering how she finds a proper work-life balance within her busy schedule, it’s easy: Ina is an accomplished fiber artist, specializing in crochet, knitting, and quilting. In this episode, we ask Ina about many of her talents and interests. In response, she weaves an instructive narrative about the importance of language, education, identity, and community for all who take the time to listen. We also discuss informal (BICS) and formal (CALP) registers of language.

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