Mexico Host Family Reactions to a Bilingual Chicana Teacher in Mexico: A Case Study of Language and Culture Clash

This study describes the attitudes of a middle-class Mexican family toward the Spanish of a Chicano bilingual teacher from Yuma, Arizona. She was among 10 U.S. first- and second-generation Chicano native Spanish-speaking bilingual teachers from Arizona who had participated in a five-week Mexico immersion program and who lived with Mexican families. During the first-week interviews with the investigators, she complained about “harsh reactions” toward her and her Spanish. This study demonstrates how the use of just a few stigmatized characteristics of Spanish are generalized by standard Spanish speakers to judge the speaker as uneducated and of low social status.