Cómo citar este artículo: Cucunubá ZM, et al. Primer consenso colombiano sobre Chagas congénito y orientación clínica a mujeres en edad fértil con diagnóstico de Chagas. Infectio. 2014. http://dx.

The present chapter presents a general overview of the main advancements in understanding the relationship between the Spanish language and Spanish heritage learners’ identity, and explores the significance of Spanish heritage classes for the students’ identity formation process. Following the conviction that what we teach can only be meaningful if we understand to whom we are teaching, I argue that scholars and educators in the field have come to rely progressively on an interdisciplinary perspective on identity to inform their theoretical frameworks and pedagogical practices. I propose that this interdisciplinary approach has broaded our understanding in four main areas: (a) the importance of the community in shaping Latino ethnolinguistic identity; (b) the impact of the pressures of assimilation to mainstream culture; (c) the significance of so-called “Spanglish” in the construction of Latino identity; and (d) the importance of considering commonalities and individual differences when seeking to define our student body. As more programs for Spanish heritage learners open around the country, I suggest two pedagogical frameworks aligned with the interdisciplinary perspective on identity to support and nurture students’ identity formation in our classrooms: Latino studies and global education. To conclude, I reflect on the road ahead and on the importance of promoting open dialogue between teachers and researchers, while encouraging expert and novice teachers to continue augmenting the resources available to help Spanish heritage learners develop a strong and creative sense of ethnolinguistic identity.

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The purpose of this article is to describe the methodology and pedagogical practices of an advanced language course, Spanish and the Community,that addresses the strengths and needs of both Spanish heritage language learners and foreign language learners in classrooms that contain both populations, i.e., in mixed classrooms. Focused on the Latino experience in the United States, the course’s main goals are to advance translingual competence, transcultural critical thinking, and social consciousness in both groups of students. Three effective and interrelated pedagogical approaches are proposed: (a) community service as a vehicle for social engagement with the Latino community; (b) the multiliteracies approach (New London Group,1996), with emphasis on work with art; and (c) border and critical pedagogy drawn from several authors in the heritage language field (Aparicio, 1997; Correa, 2011; Ducar, 2008; Irwin, 1996; Leeman, 2005; Leeman &Rabin, 2001; Martínez &Schwartz, 2012) and from Henry Giroux and Paulo Freire’s work. The effectiveness of this combined approach is demonstrated in students’ final art projects, in which they: (a) critically reflect on key issues related to the Latino community; (b) integrate knowledge about the Latino experience with their own personal story; (c) become aware of their relationship to the Latino community; and (d) express their ideas about their creative artifact in elaborated written texts in Spanish (the project’s written component).