s, even though the program had been in existence for twenty years and had won national acclaim. Thus, a major difficulty facing Latino/a families in Steel Town is finding a way to establish and maintain their cultural and linguistic identity and participate gainfully in the community in the face of so much anti-Latin sentiment.
Soto discovered that most of those interviewed were adamant about raising their children as bilinguals; they felt it was important for their children to know Spanish because it helped them maintain their cultural identities; furthermore, and more practically, it allowed the children to communicate effectively with all members of the family, such as elderly grandparents, who may not be fluent in English. Thus most of the interviewees spoke Spanish at home (or at least one parent spoke Spanish to the children) so that their children would acquire it, although they also appreciated and acknowledged the fact that their children needed to be fluent in English in order to flourish in the United States.
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