Want to Raise Bilingual Children?

It is 3p on a steamy Puerto Rican afternoon. Sweat drips. My güayavera sticks. We’ve traveled from San Francisco to a small chapel on Calle Loiza. Inside, we celebrate my late grandmother’s legacy. Crying eyes turn to my young children as they approach the podium to speak. Confidently, they each recite Spanish hymns.

As family and friends embrace my dad after the service, they say to him, “And your grandchildren… and their beautiful Spanish?!” He beams with pride at his mother’s funeral.