Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition

Genevie C. Rodríguez-Quiñones is a Chicana scholar from San Antonio, Texas, and a doctoral student whose work draws on more than 20 years of experience in public-school education. Her research focuses on Mexican American and Chicanx students, multicultural children’s literature, and culturally sustaining pedagogy’s influence on youth identity formation.

Rodríguez-Quiñones is a contributing author to Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition, including chapters on multicultural Latino children’s literature and cultural multiliteracies. She has also worked as a literacy instructional coach and IB coordinator and holds a master’s degree in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Diana Estrada is identified as an author of Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition. However, available authoritative records identify the volume’s editors as Ellen Riojas Clark, Belinda Bustos Flores, Howard L. Smith, and Daniel Alejandro González, and do not provide sufficient verifiable biographical information about Estrada to support a fuller biography.

Ruth E. Quiroa, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Reading, Language, and Literacy at National Louis University. A former kindergarten and Spanish-English bilingual second-grade teacher, she teaches graduate courses in children’s and young adult literature. Her research focuses on the history of Latinx children’s and young adult literature and the impact of culturally diverse literature on K–12 teaching practices.

Quiroa co-authored the chapter “Beyond Calaveras and Quinceañeras: Fostering Bilingual Latino Students’ Identity Development with Culturally Relevant Literature” in Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition. She has also published research on Spanish in Latino children’s literature and Latinx children’s picture books, and has served on selection committees for the Américas, Pura Belpré, Randolph Caldecott, and Jane Addams awards.

Patricia Sánchez, PhD, is a professor and chair of the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her scholarship focuses on bilingual education, Latinx education, immigration, transnationalism, and teacher preparation.

Sánchez is a coauthor of Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, contributing the chapter “Cruzando fronteras: Negotiating the Stories of Latina/o Immigrant and Transnational Children” with Maité Landa. She also coauthored the bilingual children’s book Recuerdo mis raíces y vivo mis tradiciones/Remembering My Roots and Living My Traditions, which received the 2006 American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Award.

Maité Landa is an educator and assessment specialist with more than 25 years of experience in education, curriculum development, and academic assessment. She has served as Director of Assessment at the University of the Incarnate Word and previously worked as dean, department chair, and tenured assistant professor of history at Northwest Vista College. Landa holds an M.A. in history from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a B.A. in history from Incarnate Word College.

Landa co-authored “Cruzando Fronteras: Negotiating the Stories of Latino Immigrant and Transnational Children,” a chapter in Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, examining Latino immigrant and transnational children’s experiences in literature.

Mari Riojas-Cortez, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Early Childhood Studies Program at California State University Channel Islands. She earned a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, specializing in early childhood education and multilingual studies, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998. Her research focuses on Latino family engagement, young children’s play in dual-language settings, and early childhood teacher education. She began her career as a bilingual prekindergarten teacher in San Antonio, Texas.

Riojas-Cortez has published in journals including the Bilingual Research Journal, Journal of Early Childhood Research, and Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. She is a co-author of Families as Partners in Education: Families and Schools Working Together and an editor of Keeping Up with the Times: Diversity and Inclusion in Early Childhood Teacher Education Programs and Diversifying Pedagogy in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs. She also contributed, with Raquel Cataldo, the chapter “Using Children’s Literature to Understand Values, Traditions, and Beliefs within Latino Family Systems” to Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition.

Raquel Cataldo, Ph.D., is an educator and literacy scholar specializing in early childhood education, bilingual education, and culturally relevant teaching. A native of Laredo, Texas, she holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from National Louis University, and a doctorate in interdisciplinary learning and teaching from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Cataldo coauthored “Using Children’s Literature to Understand Values, Traditions, and Beliefs within Latino Family Systems,” included in Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition. Her research and publications also address Latino children’s narratives, family-school partnerships, and culturally relevant approaches to emergent writing.

Cecilia Perfecto is a contributing author to Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition, a scholarly volume examining culturally responsive literature and teaching practices for Latino bilingual children. Her contribution, “Día de Muertos: Authentic Cultural Representation in Children’s Literature,” appears in the book’s section on multicultural literature in the content areas.

No additional verifiable biographical information or publication history for Cecilia Perfecto was identified in the available sources.

María Guadalupe Arreguín is a professor of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at The University of Texas at San Antonio. She holds a doctorate in Bilingual Education from Texas A&M University–Kingsville, a master’s degree in bilingual, multilingual, and multicultural education from the University of Texas–Pan American, and a bachelor’s degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Monterrey, Mexico. Her work focuses on equity, bilingual education, and culturally and linguistically diverse learning environments.

Arreguín is the author of Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, now in its second edition. She has also published research on translanguaging, biliteracy, culturally relevant instruction, and language-related inequities affecting Latino and bilingual children.

José Agustín Ruiz-Escalante is an educator and scholar specializing in bilingual, dual-language, and multicultural education. He earned an Ed.D. in higher education and bilingual education from the University of Washington, an M.Ed. in bilingual education from the University of Arizona, and a bachelor’s degree in political science and Latin American studies from the same institution. He served as a professor at The University of Texas–Pan American and later became professor emeritus at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Ruiz-Escalante is the author of Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, a work focused on literature and educational experiences for Latino bilingual children. His scholarship also includes research on linguistic oppression and the relationship between Chicano literature and home–school connections.

Yoo Kyung Sung, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of New Mexico. She earned her doctorate in Language, Reading, and Culture from the University of Arizona. Her scholarship focuses on global, cross-cultural, and international children’s literature; critical content analysis; transnational identities and literacies; and intercultural curriculum.

Sung is a contributor to Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children, including the second edition, and co-authored the article “The Journey of U.S. Korean Children: (Re)constructing Bicultural Identities in Picture Books.” She has also written on cultural stereotypes, global children’s literature, and literacy in multicultural and international contexts.

Sonia N. Sánchez is a Faculty in Residence with the Institute for School and Community Partnerships at Texas A&M University–San Antonio and has worked as a Continuous Improvement Specialist. She earned a B.S. in Bilingual Education from Boston University, an M.A. in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, and a Ph.D. in Culture, Literacy, and Language. Her scholarship focuses on Latina/o/x experiences in education, literacy, and children’s literature.

Sánchez co-authored the chapter “Cultural Multiliteracies Integrating Technology in Latino Children’s Literature,” included in Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, and is a co-author of the second edition of that volume.

Lucila D. Ek, Ph.D., is a professor of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio and holds the Dr. Bertha Perez Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Biliteracy Research. Born in Yucatán, Mexico, she immigrated to the United States at age four and earned her doctorate in Urban Schooling from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research examines language, literacy, and identity in Chicano/Latino immigrant communities, with particular attention to bilingual education and equity.

Ek is the author of Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, now in its second edition. Her published work also includes research on the digital literacy practices of Latina/o immigrant parents and a chapter on bilingual education in an immigrant community.

Myriam Jimena Guerra, PhD, is an associate professor of bilingual education and ESL at Texas A&M University–San Antonio, where she also advises the Master of Science in Bilingual Education program. She holds a master’s degree in education from National Louis University and a bachelor’s degree in social communication from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. Her research focuses on biliteracy development, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, bilingual reading instruction, and literacy practices among Spanish-English bilingual children and young adults.

Guerra is a contributor to Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, including the second edition’s chapter on cultural multiliteracies and technology in Latino children’s literature. Her other published work includes research on biliteracy, linguistic empowerment, and Latinx immigrant children’s use of linguistic resources outside school.

Lettycia Terrones is an associate librarian for Ethnic Studies, Latin American Studies, the Honors College, and the Educational Opportunity Program at California State University, Los Angeles. Her academic background includes a B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.L.I.S. from UCLA; she also pursued doctoral study in information sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on Chicanx studies, critical ethnic studies, information studies, and children’s literature, particularly Chicanx picturebooks.

Terrones has contributed scholarship to Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, as well as to Voices of Resistance: Essays on Chican@ Children’s Literature and Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature. Her articles have appeared in Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe and Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, including work on Latina children’s librarianship and Chicana/o picturebooks.

Kenya Vargas is the author of Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition, a work addressing the social, cultural, academic, and linguistic needs of bilingual learners. Publicly available sources provide limited verifiable biographical information about Vargas beyond this authorship.

Cori Salmerón is an associate professor of Language and (Bi)Literacy Education at Georgia State University. A former elementary school teacher in New York City and Beirut, Lebanon, Salmerón researches multilingual students’ language and literacy practices, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and teacher preparation for culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.

Salmerón holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.Ed. from Hunter College, and a B.A. in History from Rice University. Her scholarly publications include “Elementary Translanguaging Writing Pedagogy: A Literature Review” and “Their Words, Their Worlds: Critical Literacy in Bilingual Spaces”; she is also a contributor to Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition.

Amanda A. Hernández is an author associated with Multicultural Literature for Latino Bilingual Children: Their Words, Their Worlds, Second Edition, a collection addressing culturally responsive literature and educational practices for Latino bilingual children. The available bibliographic information identifies the book but does not provide sufficient verified details about Hernández’s academic background, professional affiliations, or other publications to support a longer biography.