Teachers' knowing about students and their families is critical to ensuring relevant classroom instruction. The "Family Storytelling through Dichos" approach is explored as a culturally and linguistically appropriate mechanism for learning about students' backgrounds. This article posits that this approach may be a viable one, since it is rooted…

The Latino population is the fastest growing group in the United States; thus, it is imperative that social workers and other mental health practitioners be knowledgeable about the current literature on how to effectively serve this population. This article elucidates key issues and knowledge, such as immigration and migration concerns; discusses…

The term "Latino" in this paper adopts a U.S. definition to refer to those persons born/living in the United States who are of Latin American ancestry. U.S. Latino literature is defined as literature that is originally composed mostly in English, but not exclusively, by authors of U.S. Latino background. Selections of Latino literature…

In this unique collaboration, the authors bring to life the theory of mediated learning. Through numerous examples and scenarios from classrooms and museums, they show how mediated learning helps children to become more effective learners. Readers learn the steps in the process, including analyzing the child's problem, teaching the child to focus…

In March 2009, the author accompanied 19 university students to El Paso, Texas, for an alternative spring break (ASB). The author and the students traveled to the urban zip code with the lowest per capita income in the country to study U.S.-Mexico border issues. In the ASB program's language, they sought to gain "new perspectives on social…

Given that Latinas/os make up the fastest-growing population group in the U.S., according to the 2000 U.S. Census, classroom teachers increasingly are in need of meaningful resources and learning strategies for students of Latin American heritage. These same resources can also serve to help internationalize/diversify classrooms serving non-Latino…

Many schools are experiencing substantial growth in the Hispanic student population. These students need books written in Spanish and in English as well as bilingual books. The focus of this article is analyzing the content of the books in the collection, whether in English or Spanish. Standards discuss that the diverse needs, multicultural…

This article describes the development of the Latino/a Values Scale (35 items, 14 reverse-worded). Evidence of reliability and validity are presented on the basis of three studies. An examination of the factor structure of the items suggests the presence of the following dimensions: cultural pride, simpatia, familismo, and espiritismo. (Contains 4…

The essay interprets Delilah Montoya's artworks in the context of so-called feminist theology, drawing from its ideas about desire, natality, and self-divination. After discussing the theme of desire and the quest for women's religious agency in some of Montoya's earlier works, the essay focuses on the photo-installation "La Guadalupana",…

Following the seminal writing of James Coleman (1988), a number of scholars have suggested that inequality in child and adolescent development reflects differences in social capital among families from different backgrounds (e.g., Sampson, Morenoff, & Earls, 1999; Crosnoe, 2004; Kao, 2004). By "social capital," Coleman referred to…

This paper represents a series of reflections on collective and individual efforts of diverse women scholars to reconcile alternative views of scholarship within the academy. We document our collective experience with embedding the concept of the "scholarship of engagement" in our practice of research, teaching, and service through a process of…

According to the National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project, one of the ultimate goals of studying a foreign language is to better understand different cultures. To this end, we implemented a project in an undergraduate foreign language course that promoted a systematic inquiry-based approach to learning about the Hispanic culture.…

Research shows that Hispanic second language students are not as successful as their English-speaking peers in school. The problem is in part due to several factors: curriculum deliverance in a foreign language, cultural differences, and family/school disconnect. Current census reports reveal that Hispanic populations in the United States, and…

Although there is a surplus of literature dealing with U.S.-Mexico border identities and cultures, this article begins to problematize and reposition Chicana/o art historical discourse by engaging with the U.S.-Canada border. By investigating the relationship between working-class histories and Chicana/o visual culture in Michigan, the article…

This article describes how California's Southwestern College's prized mariachi band captures the soul and the rhythm of Mexico. Four years old, the mariachi program has proved so successful that Mr. Jeff Nevin, who now directs three bands there, persuaded the two-year college in 2005 to set up what was until recently the only American college…