This textbook emerged as a collaborative project among educators of Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) who are members of SHLDNet y TeCHS. Its goal is to offer an open, accessible, and adaptable resource for the teaching and learning of SHL in the United States. The book is designed primarily for intermediate-level courses, but its flexible structure allows it to be used with diverse student populations. Its central focus is on U.S. Spanish, and it explores the histories, cultures, linguistic practices, and complex identities of Latinx/Hispanic communities across different regions of the country.
Este libro ofrece un enfoque innovador y transformador en la enseñanza SHL al combinar pedagogías abiertas, multiliteracidades, conciencia crítica del lenguaje, raciolingüística y aprendizaje-servicio. Está pensado para instructores y estudiantes del SHL que quieran implementar un enfoque participativo, culturalmente relevante y multidimensional. Las actividades animan a los estudiantes a involucrarse activamente, conectar con su comunidad y aplicar lo aprendido en contextos reales. Les invitamos a leer más sobre nuestra motivación y los marcos teóricos y pedagógicos de este libro en el prefacio.
This book is in Google Docs format, and it can be accessed in different ways: you can copy each document to your own Google Drive, that you can then edit and share. Also, you can download each document in Word or PDF format and save it to your computer. All the documents are shared with the open license CC BY-NC-SA.
Message to Our Readers
We appreciate your interest in our book and hope it serves as a valuable resource.
To students, we want to remind you that your voice, your story, and your linguistic practices are valuable and form part of the richness of Spanish in this country.
To instructors, we invite you to use this book not only as a teaching tool, but also as a space for dialogue, identity affirmation, and collective knowledge building.
We know that teaching and learning Spanish as a Heritage Language are deeply personal and, at the same time, communal processes. For that reason, this text seeks to create pathways that connect academic experiences with everyday life, with families, and with the communities where Spanish flourishes in all its diversity. Our hope is that this open educational resource (OER) becomes a bridge that links generations, regions, languages, and cultures, and above all, a bridge that connects classrooms with the lived realities of Hispanic/Latinx communities in the United States.
In this spirit, we encourage you to continue creating, researching, and dreaming of a future where Spanish as a Heritage Language holds its rightful place with dignity and pride.
With gratitude and enthusiasm for continuing to learn together,
The Authors
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our students, who over the years have inspired us to create materials that represent their experiences, needs, and aspirations. We also thank our families for their patience and unwavering support throughout this writing process.
We extend our deepest appreciation to the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL), and especially to Rachael Gilg, for their support during the development of this OER.
Finally, we wish to acknowledge all the collaborators who participated in the early stages of this project. Their enthusiasm, ideas, and creativity were essential in shaping this book:
- Bicho Azevedo (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- Evelyn Duran Urrea (Lehman College)
- Paola Guerrero Rodríguez (Texas Tech University)
- Linda Lemus (University of California Riverside)
- Carolina Melgarejo-Torres (Williams College)
- María Luisa Parra (Harvard University)
Reviewers
We are deeply grateful to the reviewers of this volume, who generously shared their time and perspectives. Their feedback helped strengthen and enrich the content and inspired critical reflections on our pedagogy.
- Timothy Ashe Jr. University of Alabama Birmingham.
- Angela Carina Azcurra. Magnolia ISD.
- Elena Foulis. Texas A&M San Antonio.
- Yvette Fuentes. Nova Southeastern University.
- Maria Claudia Huerta Vera. Idaho State University.
- Evelyn Nadeau. Clarke University.
- Marco Pevia. UCLA.
- Christian Puma Ninacuri. Bowdoin College.
- Sendy Rhone. Texas Woman’s University.
- Rocio Rodriguez. Northern Illinois University.
- Gabriela Segal. Arcadia University.
- Gabriela Vokic. Southern Methodist University.
How to cite this book
Amezcua, A., Belpoliti, F., Brandl, A., González, S., & Meiners, J. (2025). Estamos aquí! Comunidades bilingües e identidades regionales de los Estados Unidos. Volume I. COERLL. https://estamosaquishl.org/