Download or read book Words Were All We Had written by Maria de la Ruz Reyes and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2015-04-17 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging collection examines the personal narratives of a select group of well-respected educators who attained biliteracy when they were young students, and in the era before bilingual education. These autobiographical accounts celebrate and make visible a linguistic potential that has been largely ignored in schools—the inextricable and emotional ties that Latinos have to Spanish. The authors offer teachers important lessons about the individual potential of their Latino students. These stories of tenacity and resilience offer hope for a new generation of bilingual learners who are too often forced to choose between English and their native language.