Struggling to Preserve Home Language: The Experiences of Latino Students and Families in the Canadian School System

Abstract Latinos in Canada are receiving attention because of frequent poor performance in school. This phenomenon turns out to be connected to a number of basic problems that can only be understood through investigation of institutional processes with routine operations that may disadvantage certain minorities. This paper presents and discusses part of the data collected in a larger research project on Latino families and Canadian schools. Bilingual Latina researchers used participant observation and action research techniques to report on the home language practices of 45 Latino families and how the school's routine processes influenced those practices. Findings include the following: (a) parents saw Spanish maintenance as a way to foster family unity. Latino identity, and professional advancement; (b) the strong assimilative pressures experienced by parents often resulted in their doubting the desirability of openly speaking Spanish at home; (c) because the children were losing their home language rapidly, the parents used a number of strategies; and (d) there are several things that parents would like to see happen that would enable them to maintain Spanish. Our findings indicate the necessity for schools to proactively recognize and build on the family's cultural capital, including their home language.


Introduction
Cuando el niho empezo la escuela, yo Ie puse en la planilla que si t primer idioma era ingles. La persona que me estaba ayudando a hacer los papeles me dijo que era mejor que Ie escriba eso para que no tenga problemas en 10 escuela. Si yo decia que su p rimera lengua era el espait ol, 10 discriminarian, no recibiria ayuda y terminarlan pon iendolo ell ingles como segundo lengua . Entonces yo tuve que cambiar mi respuesta y escribir que ingles era su primera lengua porque sino no 10 iban a poder ayudar en nada.
[When my son started school, I wrote down on the form that his first language was English. The person who was helping me to fill out the papers told me it would be better to write that, so that he would not have problems at school. If I said that his first language was Spanish, he would be discriminated against, would not get any help, and would be placed in English as a Second Language. So I had to change my answer and write that English was his first language. Otherwise they would not be able to help him with anything.] Mrs. De Santos, a Guatemalan mother of two , like many other Latina mothers is receiving a c lear message about the lack of value placed on maintaining a home language other than English or French. In spite of official multiculturalism policies in Canada, Mrs. De Santos will have a difficult time raising bilingual children. The loss of the home language is likely to have profound effects not only on the children 's academic achievement but also on the family's ability to nurture their children and on familial relations.

Bac kground
Latin Americans, as part of one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in Canada. are receiving attention because of frequent poor performance in school. The vast majority of the newer migrants are from Central and South America. Approximately 50,000 peop le in Toronto, Canada's largest city, have been identified as having Spanish as their first language (Stati stic s Canada. 1999) . Tables I and 2 show the number of Latin American children and adolescents living in Canada and in Ontario by ethnic origin and age . The number of Latin Americans in Canada is close to 400,000; about 51% simply identify themselves as Spanish, and the remaining ones identify themselves according to country of origin.
In Canada, the children of Latin American migrants oft en show low academic achievement; only 65% obtain a high school diploma. and university graduates account for barely 10% of this group (Ornstein, 1997). Two studies reported poor outcomes for the Latino publ ic school population in the Toronto  area (Brown, 1994;Drever, 1996). Brown's (1994) study found low academic achievement as a general characteristic for both Lati n Americans and African Canadian students. Spanish-speaking students in the high schools who make up the Toronto District Board of Education were found to be under-represented in the advanced classes and achieving at a lower level compared to the overall student population and most other ethnic groups. In addition, Drevers (1996) study of the population of one Toronto high school showed how rapidly Latin American students become disengaged from school. Many consider the academic difficulties of Latin American immigrants in general to be linked to a number of basic problems the communities face . Prominent among them are unemployment, housing, and relative poverty (Borjas & Tienda, 1985;Kazemipur & Balli, 1998). The effect ofde-skilling and underemployment on parental morale should also be considered; such difficulties have a strong linguistic component besides the class component. The assimilative pressures toward abolishing Spanish as a language of the home must be taken into account. In short, the functionality and integrity of the families is threatened in a number of ways.
To shed light on the phenomenon described, several studies have been conducted in Canada among Latin Americans. The experiences of immigrant and refugee Latin American women living in Canada have been examined in severa l situations (Damaris, Carrasco, & Charbonneau, 1998;Israelite & 1lerman, 1999;Rockhill & Tomic, 1992;Rublee & Shaw, 1991) . Research has also focused on the range of problems that Salvadoran refugees face as they migrate to Canada (Durst & Lange, 1999;Jacob, 1994) . Taking a different perspective, Carrillos and Simmons ( 1999) investigated the identity politics of Latin American youth in Toronto.
The present study grows out orour earlier work with the Latino population. One of our earlier studies (Bernhard, Lefebvre, Chud, & Lange . 1996;Bernhard. Lefebvre, Murphy Kilbride, Chud, & Lange, 1998) incorporating various immigrant communities, viewed the language socialization of children and highlighted how the early childhood educational system operates under an assimilative approach, contributing to the eventual loss of children's home language. A second study, conducted with Latin American parents. indicated that elementary school -age children tended to lose their mother tongue during the "normal processes" of institutional functioning of the Canadian schools (Bernhard, Freire, Torres , & Nirdosh, 1998). The issue ofadditive bilingualism has been researched for a number ofyears in Canada (Cummins, 1993;Genessee, 1983Genessee, , 1987Harley, Hart, & Lapkin, 1986;lanco-Worrall, 1972;Lambert & Tucker, 1972;Swain & Lapkin, 1982). Cummins ( 1991Cummins ( , 1993Cummins ( , 1995and others have pointed out the rarity of additive as opposed to subtractive outcomes. In simple terms, a number of minority language communities are likely, within a generation, to have no young adult speakers of the language. In order to better understand this phenomenon, this study focused on the lived experiences of Latin American parents raising their school -age children in their mother tongue. Here , we report on the home language pract ices of45 families and how the schoo ls' institutional processes influenced these practices. We recognize that Latin Americans in Canada, not unlike Latin Americans in other parts of the world, are a diver se demog raph ic and sociocultural po pulation (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-O rozco, 1993). Therefore, the views of the parents participating in this study are not to be generalized , and claims abo ut Lati n American parents as a hom ogeneous gro up ca nnot be made. Furt her, the situation of the parents partici pating in th is study should not be viewed as though culture alone ca n ade quately explai n the circumstances and lived experiences of participants. Interactions of race, class, and gender affected the sit uatio ns of the mothers, who came from vario us educa tio nal, socioeco nomic, political, and professional backgrounds that infl uenced how they eng aged their ro le as immigrants and newcomers to this society.

Theoretical Framework
Power relations shape language practices between fami lies and sc hoo ls and the roles that families, groups, and institutions play in the process of fi rst and seco nd language acqu isition . Following Michel Foucault (1972), power is not " held" in the hands ofan elite; our analysis focuses on the micro-organization of daily practices and on the ass umptions of dom inant discourses including soc ial and educational theory (Foucault, 1972;Gramsci , 1998;Smit h, 1990;Walkerdine, 1990). Parents' practices, often seen as ineffective or characterized as passive, are the commo n resu lt of present inst itutio nal practices. As has been po int ed out by severa l invest igat ors, these pract ices illu strate the connections between powe r and knowledge and, in particular, serve to maintain the power differences of group s in our soc iety. The knowledge required in schoo l systems, including an understanding of how the sys tems themse lves operate, reflects the present network of power relations.
According to Bourdieu ( 1994), the dominant structures ofsociety, especially its educatio nal institutio ns, determin e the role of the schoo l in maintaining the school culture and represent an esse ntial element for acq uiring and ma intaining social power relation s. Besides content, the manner in which subjects are taug ht has differential effect s on the children of those in dominant and subordinate positions. The children of those in the dominant gro ups are give n ski lls recognized as "capital," or those beliefs , skills, and abilities necessary to achie ve succe ss as de fined by the domi nant soc iety. Hence, those who pass through the educational system acquire differing amo unts and kinds ofcapi tal reflecting the existing power relations. Thus, it is clear that all gro ups have some form of capital enabling them to ma intai n themselves in human society, and it may be said that certai n kinds of capital are devalued or ignore d in the funct ioning of the dominant institutions. Specifically, the cultural capital ofboth minority families and those ofthe work ing class (Lareau, 1989) are genera lly deva lued at schools. with the minority disadvantage being multiplicative with other disadvantages. The consequences of the situation described are high drop-out rates and other academic problems already described.
We do not consider language maintenance as an isolated issue. Rather, language maintenance is considered within the broader framework of social, political, and ideological factors , particularly when analyzing the situation of culturally diverse students at schools (Corson, 1993(Corson, , 1994(Corson, , 1995Cummins, 1995Cummins, , 1996Cummins, , 1997Macedo, 1997;Nieto, 1996Nieto, , 1999. Language operates as one of the most important practices within our society wherein cultural production and reproduction take place (Corson, 1998;Darder, 1991) . The vitality of a language indicates how well a group is maintaining itselfin society.
A number of studies have investigated language issues throughout the discourse ofpower relations (Corson, 1995(Corson, , 1998Cummins, 1995Cummins, , 1996Cummins, , 1997Bernhard, Freire, Torres, & Nirdosh, 1998;Schecter & Bayley, 1998;Soto, 1997;Walsh , 1991;Zentella, 1997) . Cummins (1996) argues that teachers' attitudes and behavior toward the language and culture of students largely affect how students perceive their own background. Students are empowered or disempowered as they interact with educators. Their interactions are mediated by the role that teachers assume in relation to language incorporation, community participation, pedagogy, and assessment. Teachers may unwittingly contribute to students ' feelings of shame about their cultural and linguistic background.
Research findings have extensively documented both the positive impact of bilingualism and biculturalism among culturally di verse students as well as the negative consequences that often result from language assimilation (Cummins, 1996 ;Wong Fillmore, 1991a, 199Ib). Yet, bilingualism and biculturalism are still very rare in our society. The present study explores home language practices and experiences of a group of Latin American parents facing enormous pressures in their decisions about their children's language. In particular, we look at parents' reactions to assimilative pressures and interactions with school personnel, as viewed by the parents, and we take into account such variables as the use of the mother tongue in the home.

Methodology
This study is part of an extensive research program on Latin American immigrant children and their teachers and families (Bernhard & Freire, 1999;Bernhard, Freire, Pacini-Ketchabaw, & Villanueva, 1998;Bernhard, Freire, & Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2000). The families who are highlighted in this article were part ofa two-stage ethnographic study ofhow 45 Latin American families support their children's efforts to adapt to the Canadian educational system. Because of the authors' familiarity with the language and culture, it was our intention to use what has been called "action research" (Lather, 1986) and participant observation methods, as described in the following section.

Stage One: Exploratory Study
In Stage One we assessed the context of the educational system in one particular school and developed an in-depth understanding of all the actors involved (i.e ., children, teachers, support staff, principal, vice-principal, families). The school was chosen because of its prox imity to the homes of Latin American refugees and the principal 's reputation for being responsive to family needs. During three school terms offive months each, we immersed ourselves as participant observers in three classrooms to study the day-today practices of the classroom with a particular focus on the Latin American children. We spent three halfdays in the school following the 10 Latin American children in two classes through their daily routine in academic and nonacademic activities, to recess, gym, spec ial education classes, and the heritage language program (Spanish). We collected field notes and taperecorded all interviews. We also talked formally and informally with school personnel and the children's families over a period of 18 months during 1996-1998. Our ethnographic method was based on a naturalistic, cultural contextual paradigm (Cole, 1992;Harkness & Super, 1996;Levine, Dixon, LeVine, Richman, Leiderman, Keeter, & Brazelton, 1994). Bernhard and Freire (1999) give details of the methodology. In our findings, we identify several themes, which were addressed in the second phase and are reported here .

Stage Two: Confirmatory Study
In Stage Two, we involved an additional 35 families in the following manner. We contacted several agencies that oiler services to the Latino community in the same Canadian city and asked for names of families with school-age children who had been in Canada for less than 10 years . We received the names of such families, contacted them, and informed them ofthe purpose of the study: to gain knowledge of children's learning and adaptation to the Canad ian educational system. The third criterion for participation was that the family members had not been seen by mental health professionals and had not formally received services for psychoemotional problems, and none of them declined. Thus, five families were excluded leaving the sample at 35 .

Procedure
After the initial telephone contact and selectio n, each family was interviewed on two occasions in Spanish at the family's home (each interview lasted 2-3 hours) . After establishing rapport, background information was sought. Parents were then asked questions that had the same content as that described in Stage One of the family consultation. Additionally, parents were asked to show us documentation from the school, including report cards and other correspondence, and to explain their content. Behavioral observations were recorded after the interviews.      The fami lies lived in di fferent parts ofth e city had immigrated to Canada in the last 10 years from Cent ral or South Ame rica, and had chi ldren atte nding publ ic schoo ls in the Toronto area . Background characteristics ofall the families are given in Tab le 3.
Because the selection cri teria for the fami lies in the two stages of the st udy were identical, and the ex ploratory findings were supported by the confirmatory study, all findings are rep orted together. The prese nt pap er rep orts the data gleaned from these extensive interviews. Alt hough the fami lies were recruited throu gh " snowballing" re ferrals, the gro up essent ially consti tut es a sa mp le of convenience.

Spanis h Mai ntenance
Although the parents faced stron g assimi lative pressures, they viewe d the raising of bilingual children as an important task and saw Spanish maintenance as a way to foster fami ly unity, Latino identity, and professional advancement. The paren ts interviewed expressed a number of reasons for wanting their children to grow up knowi ng Spa nish as we ll as Englis h. First, knowing Spa nish was seen as essential for maintaining contact with relatives and kee ping links with their native culture. Mrs. Guzman, a mother ora 6-year-old daugh ter who emigrated with her husband from Colombia 10 years ago, said: [Espahol] es importa nte pa ra que se p ueda co municar co n sus familiares. Cuando vantos a nuestro pais. ella deb e hablar con sus abu elos y e/los / 10 hablan ingles. Tambien con sus primos y con s us tios. Yo pienso que es muy bueno para ella. Mi esposo tam bien trata de que ella aprenda e/ esp aii ol. E/ /e hab la en esp aii ol.
[(Spanis h) is importan t so that she can co mmunicate with her relatives. When we go to our co untry, she has to speak wit h her grandparents, and they don 't speak Eng lish. She also has to speak wit h her co usins and her a unts and uncles. I th ink that it is very good for her. My husband also tr ies to help her to learn Spanish. l ie speaks to her in Span ish.] Mrs. Ma rtinez, a Co lombian mother of two chi ldren, ages 7 and 9, also recogn ized the va lue of Spanish for develop ing a sense of Latin o ide ntity. Mis valores y 10 que soy viene del pais de donde provengo. Yo puedo aprender las costumbres de este pa is. Yo he aprendido la Iengua de este pais pero yo sigo teniendo mi identidad y pa rte de mi identidad es mi idioma y por eso se habla esp ahol. Porque estoy orgullosa de donde vengo y quien soy.
[I want them to speak the language (Spanish). Som etim es I hear the. ch ildren speaking the langu age , and they are speaking it wrong. That is not good. We are Latin os and it is important that we speak in Spanish. The language that they speak in my home is Spanish , becau se we are Lat in Americans and that is our identity. 1came to this country, but I was not born in this country, I was not educated in this country, 1did not grow up in this country. My values and what I am come from my nat ive country. I can learn about the customs ofthis coun try. I have learned the language of this country, but 1still have my identity and part of my identity is my language, and that is why we speak Spanish. Because 1am proud of where 1come from and of who I am.] Most of the parents spoke of the benefits of grow ing up bilingual. Mr s. Madeiro s, a Salvadoran mother of three children, like the oth er moth ers, envisioned greater professional opportunities as a result of havin g two lan guages: No queremos que elias pi erdan el idioma. La comunidad hispana estd creciendo y el dia de manana es buena que tengan dos a tres idiomas. De esa fo rma pu eden trabajar como bilingue ell cualquier lado. Nosotros consideramos que si usted es bilingue, usted tiene muchas posibilidades de trabaj o con empresas pri vadas americanas yeurope as. Par eso a nosotros nos interesa que elias aprendan bien el espahol y el frances tambien.
[We do not want them to lose the language. The Hispanic community is grow ing and it is good for them to have two or three langu ages for the future . That way they can work as a bilingual person anywhere. We believe that if you are bilin gual, you have many j ob opportunities with private Americ an and European businesses . That is the reason it inter ests us that they learn good Spanish and [The teachers know that I speak Spanish with the children at homc. One teacher told me that I had to speak English with them becau se they do not pronounce it properly. She also told me that my son needed to speak more English because ofhis poor pronunciation, and that I was not helping them by speaking Spanish at home.] Mrs . Guzman's experience also shows that the school did not attach any particular value to Spanish:

}o Ie dij e un dia a la ma estra que a mi me gustaba hablarle en esp aiiol a la niha porque y o qu erla que ella aprendiera los dos idiomas. La maestro me co ntesto qu e y o deb eria hablarle en ingles y no en esp aii ol. Me dijo que ella pensaba qu e y o Ie deberia hablar en ingles a la nina. Pero yo 110 Ie hice cas o porque para mi era demorar a la niita en aprender el esp aiiol. Yo Ie dij e eso a la ma estra. Y ella me volvio a decir qu e a ella Ie parecia que y o Ie debia hablar en Ing les.
Ella si empre dijo qu e era mejor qu e Ie hablara en Ingles.
[One day I told the teacher that I like speaking in Span ish with my daughter because I wanted her to learn both languages. The teacher answered me that I should speak in English and not in Spanish. She told me that she thought that I should speak to my daughter in English. I didn't do what she suggested because for me that was to slow her down in learning Spanish. I told this to the teacher. And she told me again that she thought that I should speak to her (my daughter) in English. The teacher always said that it would be best if I spoke in English (to my daughter).] Although not all parents faced explicit disapproval regarding Spani sh maintenance, they talk cd about the constant subtle messages they received from school per sonnel. The school psychologist diagnosed Mrs. Madeiros 's son as having language and speech problems, and he was attending a special program offered by the school. Mrs . Madeiros was required to attend monthly meetings to discuss her son's progress with school per sonnel. In all the meetings, she heard school personnel discuss the possibility that her son 's problem could be linked to the use of Spanish at home. During the research interv iews, Mrs. Madeiros stated that after attending the meetings she doubted her deci sion to raise her children in her moth er tongue: Mi niiio esta en un programa especial porque esta un poco atrasado en la esc uela. A mi me preguntaron s i en la cas a hablabamos so lo esp ahol. }o Ie dije que s f. En la esc uela estaban tratando de ver si era que el hablarle espaiiol en la casa Ie afectaba y que por eso no Ie estaba yendo tnuy bien en la escuela. Eso es 10 que elias comentaron en la reunion a la qu e y o asisti. Entonces alii se pusieron a discutir si tal vez el problema que el tiene en la esc uela seria porque hablamos otro idioma en la casa. Yo les digo que yo hab lo en espaii ol, pero de ning una manera quisi era que eso 10 perjudicara a el en la escuela . Tal vez sea mi culpa.
[My son is in a special prog ram because he is falling behind in school. I was asked (at school) ifat home we only speak Spanish. I told them yes. The school was trying to see whether talking to him in Spani sh at home wa s affecting his poor performance at school. Thi s is what they were discussing at the meeting I went to. So there , the y discussed that the problem he was having at school may be because of the language we speak at home. I told them that I speak in Spanish. However, by no means wou ld Iwant to cause any harm to him in regard to school. It might be my fault.] Another example of the subtle messages parents percei ved from schools de valu ing bilingualism is Mrs. Martinez's case . She was a strong advoc ate of using Spani sh at hom e. However, she questioned whether this practice would be detrimental to her children. While school personnel did not make rem arks about the use of Spanish, neither did they act ively encourage the use of the moth er tongue at home . Mrs. Martinez felt that her two children's ditliculty in reading and writing could be due to her not speaking English: Los profesores nunca me han dicho nada acerca de que yo les hable en espaiiol en la casa, ni que es malo ni que es bueno . Pienso que estan de acuerdo que les enseite espahol. Pero no se. A 10 mejor 10 bueno seria que nosotro s siemp re les hablemos en ingles. De esa manera nosotros aprenderlamos a hablary tal vez eso les ayudaria a ellos a que les vaya mejor en la esc uela. Yo no puedo hablar muy bien ingles. He estudiado y he aprendido un p oco a hab/ar y a leer; p ero no se esc ribirlo. Yo me siento muyfrustrada cuando les tengo que ayudar can las tareas . }oa veces pienso que nosotros fallamo s porque no tenemos la p reparacion y el conocimiento para ayudarles a ellos en ingles.
[Teachers have never told me anything abo ut me speaking Spani sh in my home, whether it is a good orbad th ing. I think that they agree with me teaching them Spanish. But I don't know. Maybe the best thing would be for us to always speak to them in English. In this way, we would learn how to speak it and that m ight help them to do better in school. I cannot spea k Engli sh that well. I have studied it but I ha ve learn ed to spea k and to read onl y a bit. But I don't know how to wr ite it. I feel very frustrat ed when I have to help them with their hom ework . Sometimes I think that it is our fault. We are not prepared and do not know enough to help them with their English.] In Mrs . Martinez's case, the teacher had not explicitly advised her to sw itch to English in the home , but her acceptance of her chi ld's Spanish language ability was passive; she paid no attention to that language in the cla ss. Th is mess age gave Mrs. Martinez the impression that her ch ildren would benefit if she would speak better English.
Some parent s also felt bombarded with outs ide assim ilative pressures. Mrs . Rodriguez, a Guatemalan mother of one , was very aware of constant messages from the dominant society suggesting that maintaining a sense of Latin American identit y was neg ati vely percei ved : [It is hard (to maint ain the language) because there is a con stant attack from the outside. Outside there arc two messages: to create your own identity, which is Canadian, and to preserve your culture in a hypocritical way. I mean hypocritical bec ause that is what they do to discriminate against us, not to resp ect our own identity, but to exclude us. If you take a look at the number of Latin Americans who arc in pow erful positions orwho gradu ate from university and college, there arc a few. If Canada does not have any problem with multi culturalism, then why is that the majority of tho se who are in positions of power arc white and not persons from our countries?] Parents' intentions and desires to maintain their mother tongue and thei r Latino identity became overwhelmingly di fficult as they got little encouragement from dominant institutions. For some of these mothers, their feelings of insecurity, and sometimes gu ilt, led them to abandon the usc of the ir moth er tongue with their ch ildren resulting in the loss of Span ish. Mrs. Mad eiro s's children, like other children, were able to understand onl y so me Spanish word s and tended to speak more English than Spani sh: [They (my ch ildren) do not speak Spanish well. They make a lot of mistake s. They speak a bit in Spanish and a bit in English. They usually speak English among them sel ves. Sometimes they watch so me television show that has been translated into Spanish, The Magic School Bus . And, she (my daughter) asks me words that she does not under stand . She understands the show only a little bit. Som etimes the show deals with top ics that they do not know about. Most ofthe time , they answ er me in English. The old est is 16 years old and he speaks Spanish better than the younger ones . The younger children do not spea k it (Spani sh) very well .] Mrs. Guzman, a mother oftwo who emigrated from Ecuador, also mentioned how hard it was to influence the children to appreciate the value of Spanish: Es lin poco diflcil para ml que ella mantenga el espaiiol. Ella esta en la esc uela mas de la mltad del tiempo hablando ingles. Se me hace muv duro para ml porque cuando vuelve de la escuela ella continua hablando el ingles. Casi siemp re habla en Ingles en la casa.
[It is a bit difficult forme that she (my daught er) maintains the language. She spends more than halfher time in sch ool speaking in English. It is very hard for me because when she comes hom e from school she continues speaking in English. She speaks in English at home most of the tim e.] Although all parents expected the ir children to be bilingual in Spanish, many of them observed that their children slow ly became more and more assimila ted to the dom inant culture and langu age . Neither the schools nor society at large helped to encourage paren ts' desires regarding bilinguali sm and biculturalism.

Parental Strategies
As illustrated in the above section, bilingualism and biculturali sm wer e not eas y to atta in for thes e moth ers. They named several strateg ies they commonly used in order to challenge the messages surrounding them :

Struggling to Preserve Home Language
Making their voices heard at home and schoo! Mrs. Ballesteros, a Cuban mother of three, provided an example of how she encountered the situation of bilingualism at home: Una de las cosas que nosotros estamos luchando aqui es que hob/en espaitol en la casa. Aqui en la casa todos hablamos espaiiol y si sale alguna palabra ell ingles 0 si ellos me empiezan a pedir cosas en ingles, 110 se las doy 0 les rectifico. Creo que dehen mantener su espaiiol, Ellos conviven con nosotros que somos hispanos. YlJ me preocupo mucho para que ellos hahlen el espahol. Yo les entiendo 10 que me dicen ell ingles pero no se los acepto. A veces no les doy 10 que quieren hasta que no me 10 dicen en espahol.
[One of the things we are fighting for is that they speak Spanish at home. IJere, at home, we all speak Spanish, and if an English word comes up, or if they start to ask for something in English, I don't gi ve it to them, or I correct them. I think that they should maintain their Spanish. They live with us, and we are Hispanic. I worry a lot and I try very hard so that they speak Spanish. I understand what they say to me in English, but I do not accept it. Sometimes Ido not give them what they want until they ask for it in Spanish.] Mrs. Valuenzuela, on the other hand, as an attempt to ensure her two sons did not assimilate too rapidly to the dominant culture, challenged the resistance she encountered at school: Cuando la profesora me dijo que yo les tenia que hahlar en ingles, yo Ie dije que no. Yo no se mucho ingles. Pero aim si 10 supiera yo Ie dije a ella [Ia profesora] que el ingles 10 aprendian en la escuela y que yo les iba a ensehar el espahol. Yo Ie dije que se suponia que ellos Ie ten ian que ensehar el ingles en la escuela, y yo el espaitol ell la casa . Sino como me voy a comunicar con ellos?
[When the teacher told me that I had to speak to them in English, I told her that I was not going to. I do not know much English. But even though I knew it, I told her (the teaeher) that they would learn English at school and that I was going to speak to them in Spanish. I told her that she had to teach them English at school, and I had to teach them Spanish at home. Otherwise how am I going to communicate with them?] This mother took the courage to stand up to the authority of the teacher and made her case heard. However, this situation may not be possible in all cases. Parents often feel that is not their position to make their views known to teachers as they initialIy view them as authority figures.

Participation in heritage language programs
Many parents encouraged children to parti cipate in heritage programs and found it important to challenge the obstacles they identified. Although the schoo l boa rd oft en provided heritag e language program s, th e par ents participating in the study had to pay to send their children to Spani sh school. Mrs. Martine z explained her reasons for send ing her children to Spani sh classes and how rewarding this has been for her as a mother. She felt that she could help her ch ildren with homework, as she was fluent in the language of instruct ion : Yo los lIevo a clases de espa iiol. Son fantdsti cas. Es alga increible. Mi hijo esta aprendiendo a leer )' a escribir. Me gusta mucho que vayan a las closes de espaiiolporque es linda cuando elias empez aron a leer y a escribir ell espaito l. POI' ejemplo, )'0 les pregunto como se escr ibe caballo. Yellos emp ienzan a decirme. Todavia no 10 escriben perfe cto porqu e 110 tienen la ortografla . Pero estan aprendiendo. La esc uela de espaii ol a la que van los niitos es muy buena. Los niiios hacen muchos proy ectos. Nos toea trabajar mucho con elias tambi en can sus tareas. Y en este caso yo les pu edo ayudar: [I take them to Spani sh class. They are fanta stic . It is something incredible. My son is learning to read and write. I really like them going to Spanish clas s because it was very nice when they started to read and write in Spani sh. Forexample, I ask them how to spell horse. And they start to tell me. The y don't write perfectly yet, because they cannot spell very well. But they are learning. The Spani sh school that my children go to is very good. The children do a lot of projects. We also have to work a lot with them on their homework. And in this case I can help them.]

Visiting relatives in their country of origin
Maintaining con tact with extended famil y wa s another strategy used by some parents trying to encourage their ch ildren to maintain the language. Mrs . Rivas, a Honduran mother of two, exp lained : Yo estoy tratando de que ellos vayan a mi pais para que no pierdan el contacto. Peru eso es de acuerdo a las posibilidades de cada 11110. En mi pais vall a tener que hablar en esp ahol sino no vall a p oder identificarse.
[I am trying to get them to go to my country so that they do not lose cont act. But that is according to the possibilities ofeaeh fam ily. In my country they will have to speak in Spani sh, otherwise they will not be able to identi fy (with their family).]

Providing resources at home
Some parents belie ved that it was important to provide as many resources as pos sible at home in order to maintain and strengthen the links with the language: Yo les hago esc ribir a supapay a su abu elo en esp aholy asi los obligo a que 10 practiquen. Tambien les compro libros en esp ahol.
I make them write to their father and grandfather in Spanish. That way, I force them to practice. I also buy them books in Span ish .

Talking to children in Spanish
Other mothers mentioned that using Spanish in parent-ch ild interactions was important for teaching the language. Mrs . Ovando, a Chi lean mother ofa 9-year-old boy, ment ioned: Mi relacion COli e! es en esp ahol y siempre Ie estoy corrigiendo . 0 a veces me habla maly y o Ie repito la palabra y se da cuenta qu e esta mal )' 10 corrige . Le estoy enseii ando espaiiol habldndolo.
[My relationship with him (my son) is in Spanish and I am always correcting him. Or, at times, he speak s incorrectly and I repeat the word to him and he realizes that is wrong and corrects it. I am teaching him Spanish by speaking it.]

Having fri ends who speak Spanish
Mrs . Pulido, who emigrated from Peru where she was a teacher, felt that deve loping friendships with other Latin Americans would help her ch ildren to be fluent in Spanish: Yo no voy a mu chas actividades de nuestra comunidad p eru si tengo mi circulo de am igos de mi pais. Yotrato de que mis hijo s esten en ese ambient e. Eso para mi es tnuy importante para que puedan mant en er el espahol.
[I do not go to many community activities, but I do have a circ le of friends from my country. I try to have my children invol ved in that environment. To me,this is very important for them to maintain Spanish.] It is important to note that often parents' behaviors did not make a difference. As we saw in the prev ious section, many of the children were slowl y losing their first language. Ilowe ver, we should understand that parent s were very con cerned about the issue and tried their best to maintain their children's Latin American cultural and lingu istic ident itie s: Aunque yo trato de hablarles espait ol en 10 casa , me ha resultado que ellos me hablan en ingles. Yo trato de que me hablen espahol en Ia casa 0 cada vez que anden conmigo , pero como )'0 soy una madre so/t era y no tengo muchos familiares aqui, / 10 los pu edo obligor tanto. Es dificil mantener nuestro cultura . A mi me cuesta tnucho que e//os se acostumbren.
[Even though I try to speak Spanish with them at home, it has ended up that they speak to me in English. Itry to have them speak Spanish at home or whenever they are with me. But becau se I am a single mother and do not have a lot of relati ves here, I cannot force them. It is difficult to mainta in our culture. It is hard for me to get them used to speaking it.] The example abo ve shows the importance of community support and how difficult it became for parents participating in the study when support was not present. Unfortunately, the isolated efforts that parents made were not taking them far enough. Societal and school supports are essential for bilingualism and biculturalism. Home support appears to be just one aspect of bilinguali sm.
The man y strategies and efforts used to maintain the Latin American identity sho w the importance and value these parents assigned to the maint enance of their mother tongue. Although their efforts were not totally successful in the end, these mothers felt that pursuing them was an important task for the betterment of their children.

Specific Changes in the Schools
Parents participating in the study provided examples of what they en visioned for a multilingual and multicultural society. Mrs. Valuenzuela dreamed of schools actively encouraging and promoting the establishment of heritage language programs: }o pienso que en la escuela deberian darle clases de la /engua nativa de cada nino 0 de la lengua que mas sobrasa/ga en /a escuela. Por ejemplo, en la escuela donde van los nihos hay muchos Latino s. La escuela deberla tener un programa de espaiiol. Seria mucho mas fa cil para que nosotros les ayudemos. Para mi es muy dificil ayudarles. Hay muchas palabras que no les se el significado (en Ingles) entonces se me haec muy dificil. Primero tengo que entender 10 que dicen en ingles. DeSplU?S se 10 tengo que decir a ellos en espaitol. Yellos 10 tie/len que entender en espait ol para poder traducirlo ell ingles. A l'eces ellos se enoj an.
[I th ink that each school should offer classes in each child's nati ve language, or in the language that stands out the most. Mrs. Mendoza, a single mother from EI Salvador, also expressed the desire that schools participate in the promotion of Spanish among students: Nosotros decimos que es bueno que nuestros nihos dominen su lengua materna. Por eso seria bueno que los maestros se preocupen para que los niiios hab/en su idioma.
[We think that it is good that our children master their mother tongue. For this reason, it would be good that teachers made the effort that the children speak their own language.] Further, Mrs . Pulido talked about the crucial role that Spanish should play in Canadian society: Para mi seria importantlsimo que no 10 perdieramos. Si el alumno quiere aprender su idioma materna y hay posibilidades de ofrecerles la oportunidad, la escuela deberia considerarlo. Yo creo que las experiencias de los hispanos aca pueden ser mucho mas positiva si llOS dan /1UlS oportunidades. Yo quislera que el gobierno apoyara mas a nuestra comunidadya que el espahol es el segundo idioma del mundo.
[For me, it would be extremely important that we don't lose (Spanish). If the student wants to learn his/her mother tongue and it is possible, then the school should consider it. I think that Hispanics' experiences here (in Canada) could be much more positive ifwe were given more opportunities. I would like that the government provides support to our community, since Spanish is the second language in the world.] As minority-language members of Canadian society, these parents were aware of the need to support their children to function in English. However, they prized their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds and wished to transmit their ethnic pride to their children. In order to attain these goals , schools must undergo democratic transformations, some of which are indicated in our recommendations below.

Discussion
While the phenomenon of assimilation has been widely discussed, detailed investigations of the experiences of those being assimilated are less common. Structural models have been proposed that help to understand, at a macro level, how minorities are disadvantaged in the educational system (Cummins, 1996;Darder, 1991;Ogbu, 1978). Our data, however, are intended to illustrate the personal impacts of such assimilative structures on the Latino children's educational experiences and illustrate the micro-processes constitutive of power. We have shown how both the child and family's cultural capital has little impact on the educational system in which they lind themselves. Knowledge ofthe outcomes of routine and institutional actions as experienced by families is necessary in order to be in a position to help educators and families improve their relationships. Through fuller understanding of families' experiences, educators would be able to build on and recognize the families' cultural capital including their home language (Moll, Amanti, Neff: & Gonzalez, 1992). It is an assumption of our analysis that the teachers themselves are generally without ill intent or conscious bias. lienee, when the effects of existing routines are understood, beneficial change is possible. The parents, likewise, are assumed to be willing and capable ofdeparting from their present position of powerlessness, given an improved understanding of the situation and political activity.
Even if we believed in the inevitability of assimilation. we think the psychological and educational price paid by minority students could be reduced. Our preferred route is toward bilingualism in the educational process. While we will not reiterate the earlier findings of benefits ofbilingualism here (see Cummins, 1996;Wong Fillmore, 1991a, 1991b, we endorse a variety of bilingual approaches suited to particular contexts in order to enhance students' educational outcomes and Latino families' life in general. Given that we wish to reach appropriate bilingual outcomes, the present data are useful in indicating obstacles and impediments to these goals. Our earlier studies have found evidence that educators and teachers are often unaware that seemingly wellintentioned practices and procedures have often led to poor outcomes, not only loss oflanguage but also impaired educational achievement and damage to career prospects. It is important for educators and teachers to understand the seemingly impersonal processes by which the cultural capital of minority students is modified or rendered irrelevant. Although our data do not indicate the problem that parents strongly believe in assimilation, we believe that those designing a bilingual program should expect to encounter resistance from certain parents and that resistance is not simply a problem to be over ridden. A bilingual program must honor the various sensitivities of families who choose to be involved or who choose not to be involved. It is worth noting that although Latinos in the United States have been investigated extensively in view of their substantial population (e .g., Schecter & Bayley, 1998;Soto, 1993Soto, , 1997Walsh, 1991;Zentella, 1997), significantly fewer research efforts have been directed toward the situation of the relatively smaller Latino population in Canada. Yet, as we stated earlier, the numbers are large enough to warrant attention, and there is reason to expect an increased percentage of Latinos in the school population. It is probable that some of our findings about doubts or demoralization of the parents reflect the fact that they arc a much smaller minority in Canada than in the United States and that the Latino community is relatively fragmented. In another Canadian study, investigators looked at ways in which networking among parents can be encouraged (Bernhard, Freire, Pacini-Ketchabaw, & Villanueva, 1998). We believe that schools can do much to facilitate the formation , operation, and effectiveness of such networks.
Because of the small size of our Canadian sample and the methods by which it was drawn, the above results cannot necessarily be general ized to other Latino populations. The findings are intended to be a basis for preliminary hypotheses to be tested in more extensive inve stigations. In particular, since Latinos are found in a number of major Canadian cities, an attempt to picture the situation necessarily involves multi-site investigations of various cities and of particular neighborhoods. We educators can do much to improve how our schools are functioning , to recognize the experiences offamilies and build upon their cultural capital. It is our hope that through deeper understanding, the diverse structural mosaic of Canadian society can be strengthened.

Recommendations
I. School personnel would do well to familiarize themselves with the findings of the present research and other investigators on the subject of bilingualism and its possible benefits. 2. Parents would benefit if school personnel were to have a greater understanding of bilingual issues and to successfully communicate to families the benefits ofbilingualism as well the value ofmaintaining home culture and language.
3. Parents, through their school councils, can encourage teachers to take a proactive attitude toward children's languages by organizing projects focu sed on home languages, acknowledging children's linguistic accomplishments, learning some of their children's languages, and generally taking a proactive stance toward working with parents to maintain minority languages (c.g., Edwards , 1996Edwards , , 1998.
4. Parents would do well to form groups that meet outside the schools in which problems can be shared and common approaches can be developed.
Based on their participation in such groups, parents can do more to communicate their views about home language maintenance to school personnel. A goal of parents' groups and parent organizations should be to give the families hope for achieving their goals and a belief that interactions with school personnel can be successful.