Shoulders We Stand On Event
Rebecca Blum Martinez
Rebecca Blum Martinez is Professor of Bilingual Education in the Department Language Literacy and Sociocultural Studies at the University of New Mexico, where she specializes in bilingualism, second language learning and language maintenance and revitalization in language minority communities—particularly Spanish-speaking and American Indian populations. Her research and scholarly interests have long centered on the study of language development in bilinguals and second language development across varied learning contexts.
Dr. Blum Martinez has also served as the director of Latin American Program in Education that serves as a liaison between the UNM College of Education and Latin American educational institutions. Her recent publications include a co-authored chapter entitled, “A watershed moment in the education of American Indian students: A judicial strategy to mandate the State of New Mexico to meet the unique cultural and linguistic needs of American Indian students in New Mexico public schools; and a co-edited volume, The Shoulders We Stand On: A History of Bilingual Education in New Mexico.
Mary Lopez
The Shoulders We Stand On: A History of Bilingual Education speaks to the metaphor of language as tapestry, fabric, strands, threads, braiding, for the Translingual Literacy Studies Digital Hub. Old tapestries in Europe served two purposes: They told of events in the history of a people and also helped keep people warm by covering interior stone walls. So too our book tells of New Mexico’s history of bilingual education via multiple Native American and Hispanic voices i.e. “threads” and also keeps people informed of these events for posterity. This story has never been told before. My co-author/editor, Dr. Rebecca Blum Martinez and I, as well as all of our authors created this work for numerous reasons which I will elaborate on during my presentation.
Co-editor and contributing author to The Shoulders We Stand On: A History of Bilingual Education in New Mexico.
Mary Jean Habermann López has been active in Bilingual Multicultural Education throughout her 50-year professional career at local, state, national, and international levels. She has taught students and teachers K-18 in English and Spanish in New Mexico and Mexico and offered professional development to teachers and administrators in the field. As State Director for Bilingual Education at the New Mexico Public Education Department, she oversaw local program approval and implementation, established binational agreements for teacher exchanges and professional institutes and helped launch the Spanish Resource Center. Of her many recognitions, she is most proud of the Ben Luján Lifetime Achievement Award she received from the New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education in 2017. She received her BA in Spanish, graduating cum laude, and her MA in Bilingual Education from New Mexico Highlands University in 1971.
Christine Sims
Bilingual Education in Pueblo Country is a chapter that highlights the unique circumstances of Pueblo languages in New Mexico, and the early emergence of bilingual education as Pueblo language speakers from different communities led some of the first efforts to utilize their native languages in formal school settings. The chapter presents the challenges they faced and key achievements they accomplished as they navigated through the initial years of bilingual education in their tribal communities and schools. The chapter also presents the contextual background for present-day language initiatives built on long-standing principles of maintaining tribal control over their respective language programs. Christine Sims, a member of Acoma Pueblo, a long time bilingual educator herself, presents this story from first-hand knowledge of the key people and events that are part of this important story.
Contributing author to The Shoulders We Stand On: A History of Bilingual Education in New Mexico.
Dr. Christine Sims, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in the University of New Mexico’s College of Education and Human Sciences. She is Director of the American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher Training Center that she established in 2008. She completed her doctoral work at the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on issues of heritage language maintenance and revitalization among American Indian tribes. Dr. Sims specializes in indigenous language revitalization and maintenance issues, providing technical assistance to indigenous nations in language program planning, language curriculum development, language assessment issues and training American Indian language teachers.
Dr. Mia Sosa-Provencio and Dr. Rebecca M. Sánchez
There is a long history in New Mexico of both admonishing and protecting bilingualism in public schools. The contest over the education of a Spanish-speaking majority population by a minority Anglo population reflects a larger power dynamic which reverberates today. Reflected in the microcosm of schooling politics, New Mexico’s Spanish-speaking population have struggled to maintain political voice in their own land, as promised by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Gomez, 1999; San Miguel, 1999). Public schools increasingly have taken a heavy hand in segregating Spanish-speaking children and imposing cultural and linguistic assimilation practices (Gonzales-Berry, 2000). This struggle burns at the heart of civil rights battles in Portales during the mid-late 1960s. It manifests especially in the landmark bilingual education case, Serna v. Portales Municipal Schools (1974), upholding Mexican American’s right to language, to Spanish surname educators, and to a meaningful education.
Dr. Mia Sosa-Provencio and Dr. Rebecca M. Sánchez are both Associate Professors in the Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy at the University of New Mexico.
Contributing Authors to The Shoulders We Stand On: A History of Bilingual Education in New Mexico.