Improving Latino Literacy

Literature This is something that not many schools introduce especially when it comes to the population growing with Latinos and Latinas. According to Ruth Quiroa, she mentions that literacy has emerged since 1993 and from 2010, about 50.5 million individuals are made up of Latino residents. As for children, only 22 percent are younger than 18 years old, and the crazy aspect of it is that the rates of having Latino and Latina themed literacy is not advancing. According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, or the CCBC, only 79 books were published in the year 2008, which happens to be a small amount. Obviously, this is a low rate for literature itself coming from a population with high numbers in the united states. Nonetheless, literature

The reason why I reached out to conduct this interview with this professor was because she chose to incorporate Spanish as an alternative language for her handouts and exams in her classroom. Occasionally, she sometimes spoke in Spanish in class while lecturing. She was a great addition to my research because of the great answers she responded to my questions. One of the questions were as follows: “Would it be beneficial to add Spanish literature into an academic curriculum? And why?” My professor response was and I quote, “Yes. Why – Diversity of geographic areas, languages, and cultures are needed. As per Kris Gutierrez from UCLA, we need to put the language back into language arts.” The quote she used by Kris Gutierrez, in my opinion, fitted appropriately to the issue in schools were majority of the students are Latinos/Latinas, yet their native language is being ignored and not incorporated. Following that question, “why do you think there is a lack of Spanish literature especially here in the valley?” Her response, “It’s a perpetuation of linguistic terrorism and racism when we focus on English in a region that used to belong to Mexico, and in a region, that’s a Third Space, not quite Mexico, not quite the USA. Our children and families need literature in Spanish, not from Spain, but from the Americas.” I agree with her where the Spanish that needs to be introduced into our school classrooms is the Spanish we use here in conversational settings instead of the old-fashioned Spanish from Spain. Using the native language of the students would allow them to connect more instead of a Spanish they are not used