Words Were All We Had - Reviewed by Maribeth Bandas

On September 22, 2011, in honor of Hispanic Heritage month, Dr. María de la Luz Reyes, Professor Emerita, University of Colorado-Boulder, gave a reading of her new book, Words Were All We Had, Becoming Biliterate Against the Odds, (Teachers College Press: 2011), to some thirty non-profit, university and business leaders, at the San Marcos branch of the Point Loma Credit Union in San Diego.

Words Were All We Had provides a profoundly intelligent look at a generation of Latino and Latina scholars whose early schooling was marked by attempts to stifle their native bilingualism. The contributors to the book offer their personal narratives as exceptional bilingual students growing up in the United States previous to passage of legislation supporting bilingual education. In spite of the tremendous educational odds they faced, each one became biliterate in Spanish and English, without the support of an academic underpinning in Spanish. 

The title of the book is taken from the second chapter, “Words Were All We Had: Reflections on Becoming Biliterate,” by Josué M. González, Professor of Education, Arizona State University. In regard to growing up in the Texas Rio Grande valley, he writes, “Nearly everyone in our border town was poor. Perhaps we imagined that words were all we had, and we were not about to give any of them up.” A strong sense of cultural and intellectual identity through language imbues all the narratives in this book.

Each essay walks the reader through the authors’ childhood experiences and opens the door to share a passion for language and literacy through their work as scholars. Words Were All We Had is, in itself, an example of conceptual biliteracy, spanning two literary genres: that of testimonio, used so fruitfully throughout Mexico and Latin America to explain and illustrate the different cultures in all their diversity; and the scholarly essay, setting out a broad and varied, yet shared experience among a large cohort of the U.S. population, and offering the tools for further research. 

Words Were All We Had, Becoming Biliterate Against the Odds, is a compelling read, as its contributors, with their personal stories and their scholarly work, amply illustrate the resources we have as a nation with our bilingual populations, and the work that still needs to be done to combat an entrenched ideology of monolingualism in many parts of the United States. Words Were All We Had will no doubt follow the path of its predecessor, Dr. Reyes’ bestselling book, The Best for Our Children: Critical Perspectives on Literacy for Latino Students (with co-editor John J. Halcón), Teachers College Press: 2001. 

Language and Literacy Series

March 2011/ 192 pp./ PB $32.95, ISBN 978-0-8077-5180-0/

HC $72.00, ISBN 978-0-8077-5181-7 

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