Pre-Kindergarten

"In the summers, my grandmother ran child care for my siblings, cousins, and myself. It was bilingual and an opportunity for growth that was divided by financial struggle. To keep the younger generation from concern about this parents and Mama, as we call our grandmother, spoke Spanish only amongst each other. The educational opportunity to learn Spanish was concealed by childhood, these economic concerns, the domination of English, and, of course, hushed voices.

Thanks to these early childhood experiences I learned to read very early, before kindergarten! And from those early childhood, formative experiences, those beautiful memories, I was inspired to read more widely and learn to write creatively."