This chapter presents the language practices and ideologies apparently present at Horizons School and Downtown School. In the literature, the terms ‘language views’, ‘language attitudes’ and ‘language ideologies’ are often conflated. McCarty et al. (2006: 109), distinguish ‘language attitudes’ from ‘language ideologies’ due to ‘explicit acknowledgement of power relations with the latter term [tied to the] notion of the person and social group... Thus, language ideology connotes ideas and attitudes about language that are inescapably infused with relations of power’. I use the term ‘language ideology’ as interpreted by McCarty et al. (2006), while adding that those power relations are reinforced or challenged in sociocultural ‘glocal’ contexts. As I previously discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, the relations of power in Oaxaca, Mexico are framed by modernity/coloniality and colonial difference (Mignolo, 2000a, 2009). As part of coloniality, English and Spanish are considered languages, whereas Indigenous languages are considered ‘dialects’, spoken by inferior and backward people. Galeano (1992: 19) states, ‘The Indians of the Americas live exiled in their own land. [Their Indigenous] language is not a sign of identity, but a mark of damnation. It does not identify them: it gives them away’ (my translation). Children’s language practices and ideologies are not mere personal choices, but sociocultural constructions framed by the history of coloniality in Mexico. In this chapter, I first present a section focusing on Indigenous children’s language practices, followed by a section on Mestizo children and Indigenous languages. I conclude the chapter with a section on children and English that reflects on our complex responsibility while working with children from complex families bound up in coloniality and colonial difference on a daily basis.

Indigenous Children’s Language Practices

During the first and second stages of the CEAR Project, it became apparent that children who spoke both an Indigenous language and Spanish engaged in different language practices from those who spoke only Spanish. This was noted by the Indigenous students themselves and by the other students and teachers.