Spanish at home, Mandarin at school

Maria came to San Francisco from Zacatecas, Mexico as a teenager. She crossed the border illegally with the husband she married in her hometown. Because of Maria’s mother’s influence, she married too young, at the age of 16, and since then has had a hard life full of responsibilities.  She is now a U.S. citizen who eventually divorced and currently lives with her three children, younger daughter Karina and two older sons in the Mission district of San Francisco. For the past 15 years she has been a single mother.

Despite working full-time and being a single mom, she has made an extra effort not only to maintain the language and culture of her native Mexico for her kids, but also to expose her daughter to a third language. “Karina started kinder in the Spanish bilingual strand of her school, but was intrigued about the other two classes where kids, who were not necessarily Chinese, were learning Mandarin. She got curious and wanted me to switch her to the Chinese class for first grade. It was her idea to do Chinese.” Maria fully supported her daughter’s interest. Maria has also inculcated in her children her love of dance.

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