Nancy Dominguez-Fret
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‘Ni de aquí, ni de allá'

Las experiencias de una maestra de Heritage Spanish. 
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U.S. Latino Literature: My personal  reading list

6/9/2020

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Hola a tod@s,
Last summer I shared my experience and struggles with not being too familiar with U.S. Latino literature because it was never, or hardly ever, included and talked about during my K-16 education. It wasn’t until last year, as a second year PhD student that I decided to act on this and read as many Chicano and U.S. Latino books as I could in a summer. I asked other fellow teachers, friends and family for advice on what books to read and those books directed me to read others. That experience was fun and eye opening. I learned so much about my history as a U.S. born mexicana, but also about the experiences of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians, Cubans, Salvadorians etc. in the U.S. This experience has also taught me how important it is to create time and space for student agency when it comes to reading. We need to make this literature part of our Canon. Our students experiences and voices need to be included in the literature we select for our classrooms. All of our students should leave our classroom knowing there are U.S. Latino authors out there, I strongly believe that should be one of our priorities as heritage Spanish teachers. 


I have shared this personal reading list with my students, friends and family. This is a growing list, as I continue to read an explore my roots, I will add more books to this list. In the list, you can find the book title, link to amazon, and a brief description of the book from my point of view.


I hope this list is helpful and if you have any other reading recommendations, please comment below.

Link:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DugwfHZ9RikAoZrDzAJ-j0ew7Bd2Hl7ahJ7M6Qlj6tU/edit?usp=sharing​



Gracias y hasta luego,
Nancy
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Language Ideologies in the Classroom

11/29/2019

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It's been a long time since I wrote my last blog post, and I think one is overdue. As I reflect on this semester as a part-time teacher and full-time PhD student, I realized that I need to be better about sharing the research I am engaging in and how it connects to practice. That is one of the major reasons I decided to leave my full-time heritage Spanish teaching position and I don’t want to lose sight of that. This semester I have been engaging in research on Critical Language Awareness (CLA) and I will share my experience with CLA and how I have been engaging with this research. 

My colleague Megan Marshall (also a PhD student at UIC) and I had the pleasure of presenting at La Cosecha in Albuquerque this year and our topic was Language Ideologies in the Classroom. Here’s a brief summary of our presentation: 

As a field we have transitioned from deficit-based approaches to teaching heritage Spanish (e.g. así no se dice, eso no es español) to asset-based approaches where the home language variety is perceived as valuable and often times used as leverage to acquire a standard variety of Spanish (e.g. otra manera más formal de decir “haiga” es “haya”). This transition is great, but I agree with scholars like Glenn Martinez, Jennifer Leeman and Claudia Holguin (and others that I can’t remember at the moment-I blame my kids for this) that we need to include CLA in our heritage Spanish curriculum. Some of the goals of CLA are to: (1)Empower students to see themselves not as deficient users of academic Spanish but as proficient language users with a broad (and growing!) linguistic repertoire and (2) CLA encourages the use of sociolinguistic tools to critically analyze the social values ascribed to different language varieties to empower students to make and defend their own linguistic choices. CLA promotes conversations with students for example about  the fact that languages are standardized for social and not linguistic reasons and that “standard” forms represent the language norms of socially powerful speakers and groups.

So how do I have these conversations with my students? In the next few weeks, I will share a few short activities that Megan and I created and/or found, that can help you include CLA in your heritage Spanish classroom. For this week, I will share how to talk about “haiga” and “haya” with our heritage Spanish students..

What most of us are doing now:   “Haiga” es una forma más informal de decir “haya”. Cuando escribas, usa “haya” y en tu casa o en tu habla diaria puedes usar “haiga”. 

What CLA proposes: Si estudiantes, “haiga” and “haya” have socially ascribed values that deem one more valuable than the other, but linguistically, they both have the same value. I encourage you to use the variation that you feel more comfortable using in your speech, but know that there will be people out there that will judge your use of “haiga”.That is why I am going to share some history behind the use of “haiga” and “haya” and then you will have the agency to make your own linguistic choices and also DEFEND them: 

Brief history behind the use of “haya” and “haiga”: 
During the Renaissance & Golden Age (16th & 17th centuries) “haiga” and “haya” were used in free variation→ the desire to have a national language in Spain pushed for the codifying of the Spanish language= print→ this created a pressure to avoid language variation and therefore only one, either “haya” or “haiga” could survive. In this case the people in power chose “haya”. 
Some additional history of how this variation began: 
  1. Increment /g/ was added to the first-person singular present indicative and all present subjunctive forms   cayo/caya →caigo/caiga
  2. This was overgeneralized and extended to other verbs with stem final /j/ haya→ haiga 
  3. In the 17th century haiga becomes “non-standard” but is still highly used 
Y colorín colorado este cuento aún no se ha acabado pero tengo que ir a ser mami ahora. I hope this gives you some insight on what CLA is and I hope I can share more of my academic journey con todas/os ustedes!

                                                                                       References

Claudia Holguín Mendoza (2018) Critical Language Awareness (CLA) for Spanish Heritage Language Programs: Implementing a Complete Curriculum, International Multilingual Research Journal, 12:2, 65-79. 
Penny, Ralph. Variation and Change in Spanish, Cambridge University Press, 2000. 
Leeman, J. (2018). Critical language awareness in SHL: Challenging the linguistic subordination of US Latinxs. In K. Potowski (Ed.) Handbook of Spanish as a Minority/Heritage Language, (pp. 345-358). New York: Routledge.
Martínez, G. (2003). Classroom based dialect awareness in heritage language instruction: A critical applied linguistic approach. Heritage Language Journal, 7(1) 1-14. 


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Una carta para mis estudiantes de herencia

8/20/2019

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It has been a while since I posted something on my blog.  Life has been busy with a new baby and a PhD in progress. However, this summer I was offered the opportunity to develop a heritage Spanish course that I will  teach online (hopefully) soon!  One of the things I want to include in my curriculum is an introduction letter for my heritage students, but I wanted to ensure the content focused on them and their previous and present language experiences. I finally sat down and had some time to write this letter and I just wanted to share it with you to either motivate you to write your own or use mine as a guide to discuss the linguistic oppression our heritage students have experienced. Let me know what you think and feel free to share your own below :) 

Dear Heritage Spanish Students, 
My hope is that this class teaches you more than how to speak what some call “proper Spanish”, “formal Spanish” or “castellano”. 
My hope is that you understand that the way you speak Spanish is not wrong, it’s perfectly correct and it makes you the unique person that you are. 
My hope is that in my class you continue to explore your cultural raices and that you understand that you belong y que eres ENOUGH. 
My hope is that mi clase empowers you with U.S. Latino history that probably never made it to your school’s curriculum because you had to learn mentiras sobre Cristóbal Colón . 
My hope is that if you feel that your español is “horrible”, “a shame”, or “not good enough” you understand that your Spanish “proficiency” is a result of the education inequalities in this country. 
My hope is that you understand that some of you were robbed of your heritage language for the simple fact that our language was not important enough. 
My hope is that you understand that the simple fact that this class is being offered, es progress, it’s a gift, es una oportunidad. Algunos de nuestros antepasados fueron golpeados for using their native tongue. 
My hope is that you understand that the way you feel about your Spanish is not your parent’s fault. See, they were brainwashed into thinking English was good enough. A common message from teachers to parents was (and in some places continues to be):      “Señora , your daughter will never make it in this country if you don’t stop speaking Spanish to her at home. English only, por favor”. 
My hope is that you understand that this class es una oportunidad de enamorate de tu idioma de herencia, de tu cultura, de tu gente y de tu comunidad. 
My hope is that you get angry enough to want to maintain your heritage language y así pasarlo de generacion a generacion because that’s your legal right. 
My hope is that you understand that NOW being bilingual is an asset and a commodity, but to you, it’s way more than that. El español es tu familia, tu comida, tu musica, tus emociones, tu identidad. 
My hope is that you are so empowered that when others tell you “Speak in English we are in America” you respond “Listen, como dice Anzaldúa, you can’t tame a wild tongue !”. 
Con amor, 
Su profesora de español

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Un book review breve de  "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter"

8/16/2018

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Title: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Author: ERIKA L. SÁNCHEZ

Do you ever feel like you are not mexican or american enough? Have you ever felt like your parents (or society) had certain expectations for you to meet that weren’t necessarily priorities in your life? If so, I highly recommend you read  I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter written by Erika L. Sanchez.

Julia, the protagonist in this novel constantly struggles to meet her mom’s expectations of what it takes to be a perfect Mexican daughter. She is constantly compared to her older sister Olga, who everyone deems a perfect Mexican daughter. However, after Olga dies in a tragic accident, Julia begins to discover that her sister was living a double life and wasn’t as perfect as everyone thought. As a way to cope with her loss, Julia’s mom constantly compares Julia to her dead sister, which truly hurts Julia because no matter what she does, she never feels like a god enough hija.

Despite their recent loss, Julia aspires to be someone in life and has a desire to move out of her house and attend college out of state. Her parents do not support this decision, therefore, she has to figure out a way to try to make this happen for herself. Here, the reader gets to experience the struggles a first generation college students has to overcome in order to “make it”.

This novel was an easy, fun and authentic read of what it means to grow up Latina in the U.S. It’s one of the few novels that actually discusses issues that our youth quotidianly struggle and live with. Aside from that, the author, Erika L. Sanchez, is a Chicago native who grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood near Chicago. She’s a perfect example that success is attainable for our Latino youth in Chicago.

If you are a Spanish educator, this book is now also available in Spanish for your students to enjoy:
No soy tu perfecta hija mexicana
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Chicano Literature in the Heritage Spanish Classroom #unbookalaweek

6/24/2018

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As I wrapped up my semester as a PhD student at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), I couldn't help but to reflect on my school year and how this program is changing my teaching philosophy. As heritage Spanish teachers we aspire to have our students read in Spanish. Sometimes, we have to follow a mandated curriculum, other times, we have the freedom to chose which books our students can read. For the latter group of teachers, I would highly encourage you to start exploring and including Chicano literature in your curriculum. Give students options on what they can read and provide them with the opportunity to learn more about their own history and to read about issues that directly affect them and/or their community.  Personally, I didn't have the opportunity to learn my history in elementary or high school. I took some Latin American courses in undergrad, but our reading selection there was mostly focusing on Latin America and not the lives of Latinos in the U.S. 
Now, as a PhD student, I have intrinsic motivation to learn more about my history and become familiar with Chicano Literature. For the past 6 weeks, I have been reading Chicano literature and my goal is to read many more books this summer. Why?
1. I need to know more about my own history, 2. I want to use this knowledge to encourage other Latinos my age and/or my students to learn about their own history, and 3. I love to read :)
If you want to follow me on this journey, you can follow my blog and/or my Instragram hashtag #unbookalaweek. Here, I will share a brief summary of the book, important topics discussed and how they can be implemented in your heritage Spanish classroom. 

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Free Resources for Heritage Language Educators

12/18/2017

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Do you teach a heritage language in the U.S.? Do you ever struggle to find free resources, keep up with them and/or know what organizations you should join?

This is a constant issue I have and I am sure many of you do too. As I was doing research for a course I took this semester, I stumbled upon a treasure! An article titled Preparing Heritage Teachers to Work With Heritage Language Learners written by Dr. Ana Maria Schwartz Caballero (I really recommend that you read it!). In this article, she compiles all of the heritage language resources she is aware of, which is awesome! This came at the perfect time for me because I had just learned about Padlet (if you haven't used this free online program, you should look into it, super user-friendly and fun!).  This motivated me to create a Padlet where I visually compiled all the resources Dr. Ana Maria Schwartz Caballero mentioned in her article and added others I was aware of relevant to heritage language pedagogy. I hope this is helpful for some of you! If you know of any other resources, conferences, books or bloggers I should add, please let me know! I will be updating it frequently. 
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Link:  padlet.com/ndomin2/ujzccigobrt0

Feliz Navidad :)

-Nancy 
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Are you a Heritage Spanish teacher? Are you looking for a community of heritage Spanish teachers to share ideas with ? Read below!

8/3/2017

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Last week I had the privilege to attend a heritage Spanish workshop in Austin, Texas hosted by the University of Texas at Austin.  I attended this conference for FREE (yes!). How did this happen? Well this amazing university has a center called COERLL (Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning) that has diverse research projects going on and one of them is dedicated to Heritage Spanish. Below is a brief description of this organization. 

COERLL- heritagespanish.coerll.utexas.edu/
This is an amazing resource for heritage Spanish teachers who need help building curriculum, answers to questions and/or simply advice from other colleagues in the discipline. They have created a Heritage Spanish Cafe heritagespanish.coerll.utexas.edu/groups/heritage-spanish-cafe/ which you can join for FREE! Here you can post, share and have access to numerous resources. The idea behind this Cafe is to create a community in which heritage Spanish educators share materials with each other in order to make our lives easier :) You will not get monetary compensation for all the materials you share, BUT you do get credit as the author and owner or the materials.  They do however have  an amazing opportunity where you can create a lesson/ materials for the heritage classroom and potentially get payed for it. Here is a description of this opportunity per COERLL:
The Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) invites you to apply to become a COERLL Collaborator for the Heritage Spanish Teaching project. As Collaborators, you will continue to build on the activities you create in the 2017 workshop with the aim of sharing the final versions on COERLL’s Heritage Spanish website. In support of your continued pedagogical work, COERLL will offer an honorarium to each COERLL Collaborator ($300 to $500) upon completion of your project.

You can access this information here : coerll-collaborator-application-heritage-spanish.docx

Once you join the Cafe, you will have access to all the documents, power-points and videos of topics discussed in the workshop I attended. Below are some of the themes discussed: 
  • Creating units that empower students. One of the presentations by Claudia Holguín Mendoza discussed the importance of teaching students about sociolinguistics in order to fully prepare them. Another unit that was briefly mentioned was about Corridos. The AWESOME thing about this is that these units are available for free to all educators who are part of this community. Check them out!
  • Maria Carreira also presented on how one can utilize the 5Cs (ACTFL) in the heritage classroom as well as the proficiency guidelines (ACTFL). I think the best take away from this presentation is that a great number of our heritage students come in the classroom with a intermediate language proficiency. 
  • Jose Esteban Hernández and Yanina Hernández also presented about themes and writing reflections they utilize in their heritage Spanish  program in order to engage their students and meet all of their needs. 
This was an awesome conference! Once again, all the materials and resources are available once you join this FREE community for heritage Spanish educators. I hope this was somewhat helpful!

:) Nancy Fret 





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August 03rd, 2017

8/3/2017

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Historias paralelas: La opresión de la gente de color en los Estados Unidos.

7/3/2017

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I grew up in el corazón of Little Village in Chicago and attended all public schools throughout my educational journey. I remember being in a "bilingual classroom" where I was encouraged to read and write in English and to forget about my Spanish. I remember learning about how Christopher Columbus "discovered" America and events like World War and World War II. Honestly, I always thought history was BORING. I never felt a connection to the material being covered in class. I always asked myself : how does this affect me or my culture ?
Today as I reflect on these memories, I am almost sure my experience is that of many students of color. In our schools, we never really learn about our cultura or about other cultures and their stuggle trying to assimilate or simply survive in the United States. In my experience, it wasn't until college that I started learning about mi cultura. But why wait until college for our students to learn about their roots? Why not include it in our language curriculum ? We already teach about culture, so why not draw historical parallels ?
As I was researching about the Bracero Program to help a friend out, I started asking my husband ( Puerto Rican background) about his grandparents and their experience migrating to the US in the 50s. This curiosity sparked because this was around the same time that the Bracero Program took place. He shared that many of his family members flew from Puerto Rico to the US via airplane on beach chairs with ropes being their only sestbealts. They left their island because they were promised a better life in Los Estados Unidos. He also shared how a lot of individuals in this Great Migration to New York City turned to drugs as a way of coping with the change of lifestyle. As he was sharing this, I began to understand that oppression was affecting many different races and cultural groups at the same time.
If we try to draw additional historical parallels, we can also include what was going on with the African American community at this time which was the Civil Rights Movement. When we think about the bigger picture and analyze the parallels, we can see how all of these cultural groups were oppressed around the same time. The Braceros were getting horrible treatment, low pay ( if they got payed) and suffered racism. Puerto Rican's were promised a better life and instead faced racism, inequality and because of failure to have an identity a future generation of stars were dimmed. African Americans were also suffering racism, exclusion and even denied a proper education. All of these groups were trying (and are still trying) to live the famous American Dream. The point I am trying to make is that as language educators, we need to ask ourselves how the content we are teaching is relevant to our students. We need to draw parallels of what was going on with other cultures during the same time period. We need to make these connections in order for our students to be engaged and understand that oppression in this country isn't new and it has affected all of us. If you really want your students to be engaged, you need to draw a connection and explain for the Bracero program was occurring when African Americans were still fighting for their Civil Rights.
Below are some resources that you can utilize in your classroom as a reference point if you are interested in drawing connections in your classroom. Some of them are in English but I think they would lead to a great discussion in Spanish. I am aware that other struggles occurred during the same time period in other cultures not mentioned in this post. I tried to focus on the cultures of students in my classroom andenvironment that I grew up in. So try to remember next time you teach about the Bracero Program to also include the struggles of other minorities during the same time period. In my case I would focus on The Great Migration to New York City and the Civil Rights Movement. Remember that students learn more when the content includes them and affects them 😀

Please feel free to comment and/or email me with other topics and/or resources to add to this post.

The Bracero Program
​Cobran su sueldo 60 años después news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/mundo_usa/newsid_7675000/7675078.stm
La desconocida historia de los braceros mexicanos que murieron por esperar un empleo en Estados Unidos www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-37528106
A song about the reality of being a Bracero by Phil Ochs www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmNDZNmxIk
A racist video promoting the Bracero Program: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRddG9zcMLg
An archive with resources about the Bracero Program: braceroarchive.org/
Los braceros, la pesadilla del sueño americano :culturacolectiva.com/los-braceros-la-pesadilla-del-sueno-americano/The Great Migration from Puerto Rico to NY
LA EMIGRACIÓN PUERTORRIQUEÑA A LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS
www.proyectosalonhogar.com/Enciclopedia_Ilustrada/Emigraci%C3%B3n_puertorrique%C3%B1a.htm

Pictures of the journey from Puerto Rico to NY freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prraices/photo_memories.htm
Trailer de la película "La guagua aérea"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=72B-_VGctWM

La vida en Nueva York en los 50 y 60 https://www.ifla.org/past-wlic/2011/107-casillas-es.pdf

The Civil Rights Movement
The Negro Travelers Green Book
http://www.teachingushistory.org/ttrove/documents/GreenBook.pdf
Articulo sobre la lucha por los derechos civiles http://www.unitedexplanations.org/2016/01/13/pasado-y-presente-cincuenta-anos-del-movimiento-por-los-derechos-civiles-de-los-afroamericanos-en-estados-unidos/

Discusión del discurso por MLK :Tengo un sueño https://www.google.com/amp/www.vix.com/es/btg/inspiracion/67491/tengo-un-sueno-el-poderoso-discurso-de-martin-luther-king-de-1963-que-seguimos-recordando-hasta-hoy%3Famp

Video : La lucha por los derechos civiles de la comunidad afroamericana
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pf68OIeZgig


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Talking about life after high school in the heritage  Spanish classroom.

5/25/2017

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When I began teaching Latinos Spanish I realized that my job consisted of more than just teaching. I began to realize that my high school students needed more than to maintain their Spanish;they needed to be pushed and motivated to think about life after high school. In order to do this I created a unit that focused just on Latinos and education. The following were our unit "metas":
(1) Investigar sobre personas latinas que han sobresalido en los Estados Unidos
(2) Investigar opciones laborales y académicas  después de la preparatoria
(3) Hacer una aplicación para la universidad
(4) Entender lo que es FAFSA
(6) Escribir un personal statement
(7)Crear un resumé y carta de presentación
(7) Practicar una entrevista laboral
I began by providing my students with statistics on Latinos in higher education. I wanted my students to realize that Latinos are underrepresented in the professional world. After analyzing statistics, students were asked to write about their plans after high school. Some said they weren't going to write because they didn't want to go to college. My response to this was that it was fine if they didn't want to go to college but they still had to have a plan. Their future couldn't consist of working at McDonald's or Burger King ; I wanted something concrete.
The next step was to write a personal statement, a resume and a cover letter. We also practiced and prepared for mock interviews. All of this was done in our Spanish r classroom. Sure, students probably would never have to apply to a Latin American university or have a job interview in Spanish, but they got the experience  and could easily transfer their acquired skills to English. I think one of the most empowering assessments of this unit were the mock interviews. For this component of the unit, professionals from the community came and interviewed our students in Spanish. Near the end of the unit we took a field trip to the University of Illinois at Chicago where students got a tour of the campus, went into dorms and got to learn about LARES a Latino organization that focuses on Latino student retention. Overall, this is one of my favorite units to teach! If we don't empower them to become their best versions of themselves, who will?
Below I will share some of the resources I utilized in this empowering unit. Feel free to comment or message me for more resources.
Materials I utilized in my classroom:
ideasparacurriculumvitae-resume.docx.pdf
ideasparacartadepresentacion.docx.pdf
personal_statement.pdf
rubricamockinterviewnd.docx.pdf
Online Resources:
FAFSA form in Spanish: studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/2017-18-fafsa-spanish.pdf
FAFSA information in Spanish: https://ifap.ed.gov/fafsa/attachments/0607FAFSAInsert(sp)100605.pdf
University cost research database:  collegescorecard.ed.gov/
Tuition Net Price Calculator: financialaid.uic.edu/npcalc.shtml
The Common Application: www.commonapp.org/
Video: Personal Statement :www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWxFVtSUAsQ
Graduate: Una ayuda financiera para el exito: sites.ed.gov/hispanic-initiative/files/2014/04/Spanish.pdf
Después de la escuela secundaria… ¿Y ahora qué?: www.palmbeachschools.org/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/113/2016/04/after_high_school_booklet_12-2011_SPANISH.pdf
Articles:
https://laopinion.com/2014/04/19/latinos-ingresan-a-la-universidad-pero-no-se-graduan/
www.telemundo.com/noticias/2015/04/13/como-pueden-llegar-mas-estudiantes-latinos-las-universidades-ivy-league
www.univision.com/chicago/wgbo/noticias/educacion/estudiante-latino-de-chicago-fue-aceptado-en-la-universidad-de-princeton-video
www.univision.com/noticias/educacion/joven-latina-es-aceptada-en-11-universidades-y-gana-una-beca-video
​www.univision.com/noticias/universidades/joven-latino-de-la-villita-fue-aceptado-en-stanford

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    Nancy Domínguez-Fret

    Educator.  Spanish. Heritage Language. Spanglish. 

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