Bilingual by Choice: Latino Parents’ Rationales and Strategies for Raising Children with Two Languages

This paper reports findings of a study which addressed caretakers’ rationales and actions in support of Spanish language maintenance and the issues they confronted in pursuing this goal. Analysis focuses on both respondents’ attitudes regarding individual bilingualism as an idealized social construct and the reasons behind their personal decisions with regard to home language use. On a societal level, respondents favored an arrangement defined by cultural pluralism and viewed individual bilingualism as a means to promote this goal. The rationale given most frequently by caretakers when asked specifically about their personal motivations for using Spanish with their children concerned instrumental benefits from being bilingual: knowing Spanish would serve their children well academically, give them an advantage in a competitive job market, and help them to adapt in the face of possible geographic relocation. However, analysis of the interviews as life stories revealed that when not explicitly asked about rationales for their personal decisions on behalf of Spanish, caretakers tended to emphasize their commitment to the minority language as an act of affirmation of group identity. Such analysis also revealed that support for a strategy of maintenance required constant reaffirmation as families struggled with changes in their life circumstances.