“Growing up, some white peers and teachers would describe me as an anomaly within my community instead of connecting my achievements to the intellectual heritage within the Latina/o community. As others who come from poor and working-class backgrounds or people of color have done I too could have bought into the deficit perspective that I am better than my own, but the practices of mainstream schooling, curriculum, and patriarchy I continue to experience serve as a constant reminder that I am perceived as belonging to a community of second-class citizens at best. Even after poor and working-class, women, and/or people of color enter the academy as faculty members, we continue to struggle within a system that is not setup for our success. Therefore, I continue to learn about and extend the limits and possibilities within which I might envision the future of my communities—communities of women, working class, Latina/o, and/or immigrant students.” (Prieto, 10)

I found this passage moving because it shows that even when a member of a so-called “second-class” community excel, they’re still viewed as a sort of “exception that proves the rule,” and little in the way we handle different communities changes. I find this disheartening – it seems the dominant culture will always find a way to explain away the talents and successes of minoritized cultures. I appreciate how Prieto refers to this as a “deficit perspective” – a sort of glass-half-empty approach that centers around the fact that just because someone comes from a disadvantaged background, there must be something wrong with them, even if they succeed. Perhaps built into this deficit perspective is the notion that there is something wrong with them for succeeding – for rising above the expectations, both explicit and implicit, that the dominant culture has for them. It is all too easy to say that we should have high expectations for everyone, regardless of background, but it is certainly worth trying. I think the first step, reinforced by all the articles we’ve read today, is to re-examine our anglocentric view of the world, and learn as much as we can particularly about Spanish speakers, who speak a language that in the United States carries many negative connotations. What can their unique culture and language contribute to our classroom?