Language Culture And Power Essay

Language, Culture, and Power: Bilingual Families and the Struggle for Quality Education by Dr. Lourdes Diaz Soto (1997) is a powerful book which highlights the struggle bilingual families face in trying to obtain a good, fair, and equal education America. In the book, Soto focuses on Puerto Rican families living in “Steel Town” Pennsylvania. Language, Culture, and Power is a case study that lasted over nine years, which Dr. Soto conducted while teaching in the town. The data was collected through interviews with Puerto Rican families, interviews with educators in the area, and personal observations of Dr. Soto and her own family. Dr. Lourdes Diaz Soto was an Associate Professor at the Pennsylvania State University at the time, where she focused her research on bilingual/multicultural education. Dr. Soto is now currently retired, after being a professor at five different universities. She still advocates for equal education for bilingual and multicultural students. The preface does not add any information about Dr. Soto’s background or credentials, but it does shed light on what she wants readers to get out of the book.
Dr. Soto wants to make readers aware of institutional racism that still prevails in America. She does this by illustrating the nature of the …show more content…
Soto makes it clear that the problem that bilingual families face in trying to achieve equal/fair education is not just a language problem, but a political and power issue as well. Dr. Soto does a great job displaying the struggles that bilingual families face in her book; which is why any multicultural educator should read Language, Culture, and Power, and become aware of the issues that bilingual students encounter in American schools. Dr. Soto uses the main points of silencing the bilingual communities and how bilingual education is better for students’ learning than English only education to emphasize educators failure to listen to support for bilingual