Mishelle Jurado of PDK International began her Saturday breakout session with history because, she said, it is imperative that teachers and students know the history of the many languages in the U.S. Because if we do not know the linguistic atrocities that have happened to multiple communities in our country, Jurado said, we cannot change the future for these communities. No student should ever have to lose the language of their home to assimilate the dominant language of U.S. culture.

The U.S. not an English-speaking country. Multilingualism existed here before colonial settlers stepped onto our shores. When Jurado explained that Spanish was the first European language to reach the U.S., there was some surprise among the participants and looks of reflection among others.

Bilingual education began in the U.S. with German speakers in Ohio, but the 1968 Bilingual Education Act made the “decriminalization” of the use of other languages in classrooms federal law. Today, we need bilingual teachers across the country to serve and support multilingual-bilingual students.

Jurado, a 20-year veteran of bilingual education from New Mexico, said that bilingual education is “about my children and their grandmothers. Spanish is just as important as English for them.” Having bilingual education affirms their linguistic identity. “This is what I want for all children,” she said. She shared about efforts in New Mexico to grow our own Indigenous and Spanish-English Bilingual educators to meet the linguistic, cultural, and social-emotional needs of students.

Hearing this message of support for linguistic diversity was meaningful to the students who attended. After the session, a young woman, with tears rolling down her face, came to Jurado and said, gracias. “For the first time ever, someone has made me feel like my language deserves a place to be in.”

Another participant, an immigrant from Ukraine who attended with her daughter, said she felt pressure to speak English to her daughter. The daughter whispered to her mom, “I think I need keep up with my Ukrainian.” The mother was overjoyed that her daughter finally understood.