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For me, it was important to be true to my identity and throughout my K-12 schooling, I felt as if I had to put part of my identity aside to be successful. I could not speak my native language and was reprimanded when I did with the threat of not being successful. As a bilingual teacher, I would be true to myself as well as continuously get practice and not loose the language. I would hope to be a dual immersion teacher in my community back home or one similar.

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I didn't learn English until 1st grade and did not become RFEP until the end of 3rd grade. This could have been because at home, my mom only allowed us to speak Spanish so that she could understand what my siblings and I were discussing. She said not learning English was her way of rebelling. But, because of the emphasis the school made on the necessity to become fluent in English, my mom started making me and my siblings practice English in our home which then turned into us almost exclusively speaking in English to one another and only speaking Spanish when she was around.

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Did not have a single class that touched upon my Latinx identity. But, my algebra teacher was Latinx and I found a sense of community in her class as she consistently sprinkled Spanish into her teaching. Additionally, in the transition from intermediate to high school, I took a Spanish placement test to see what Spanish class I could test into.

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In high school, I took Spanish Speakers 2, AP Spanish Language and Culture, and AP Spanish Literature. In these classes, I still was not learning about things that I could relate to. Spanish Speakers was more about getting us speech practice which definitely helped me. Then came AP Spanish Language and Culture, but this class was taught more based on geography. Finally came AP Spanish Lit where I thought I was going to learn about people that I could relate to, but instead was reading things like Don Quijote de la Mancha.

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Although I did not see myself in the curriculum, I did see myself in my teachers. I had Don Castillo and Senorita Campos who were Mexican and had Senora Fields who was Cuban. Senorita Campos was my most influential teacher in high school as she was the epitome of a strong, independent, Latinx woman in academia that I had witnessed.

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I grew up in Orange County, specifically in Santa Ana which is primarily Latinx. As such, when you go to the store or anywhere in the area you can expect to be talked to in Spanish first.

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My family is from La Bajada, Guerrero, Mexico. My mom attended school for two years as a child because during that time in Mexico, you had to pay for more schooling. The Spanish that my siblings and I learned at home was not "academic" Spanish.