ly white Americans without today’s tolerant attitudes toward diversity. Neither Roberto nor Isabel spoke English upon their arrival in the U.S. Roberto enrolled them in an English class available to immigrants at a community college during the evening. They would come home and teach Armando and his older siblings the lessons they had learned that night. Always motivated by their children, Armando told me during our interview that his parents worked hard and long in Mexico City, but in the U.S. they had to work even harder due to the additional pressures and challenges of trying to assimilate themselves and their family into the mainstream American culture.
English lessons gave his parents more confidence to find employment and Armando recalls his feelings on finally being able to speak to his classmates in their own tongue: “It was difficult at first knowing very little English. I remember my second grade teacher being very nice about it, but back then there wasn’t a great deal of sensitivity to Mexicans, especially ones who could not speak English. I was always being stared at and made fun of by the English students. I was so used to saying Hola
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