Thread by @nelsonlflores

I have met many Latinxs who are reluctant to claim they're bilingual because they feel like their Spanish is not good enough despite using it everyday.

In contrast, I have met many white people who claim they're bilingual because they took a few years of high school Spanish.

From personal experience, I decided not to become a bilingual teacher because I felt that my "academic Spanish" was not good enough to teach in Spanish. And then I saw some of the white people teaching in bilingual classrooms and was like

After developing an entire research agenda around raciolinguistic ideologies that pathologize the bilingualism of Latinxs I walk into every meeting like this

The message that I hope to keep sharing with other Latinxs is that any bilingualism you have is good in and of itself. You don't need to justify, defend it or commodify it. What is important is its significance to you, your families, your friends and your community.

I know many Latinxs (including my siblings) who will apologize for only understanding Spanish. I am like, you understand more than one language. That is amazing! The fact that you can still understand a language this society has worked to strip you of is even more amazing!

Then there are Latinxs who identify as monolingual English speakers who use some terms derived from Spanish in their everyday lives without realizing until they interact with non-Latinxs who don't know that they mean. This is resistance to monoglossic language ideologies. Own it!

If you don't feel like you could effectively use Spanish in a work setting then you may not want to claim your bilingualism on a resume. But that doesn't mean your bilingualism isn't beautiful. White people celebrate any bilingualism and you should too.