In a thought-provoking and informative discussion on the fight for linguistic and educational justice, William Perez, Ph.D., and Rafael Vázquez, Ph.D., spoke at LMU's Faculty Pub Night to give insight into their recent publication, "Culturally Responsive Schooling for Indigenous Mexican Students." Perez emphasized the need to recognize and support the many indigenous languages spoken in Mexico. 
"Indigenous communities are pretty much absent from conversations about global migration and what that means for language heritage, language maintenance, and the promotion and support of all world languages, including indigenous languages," Perez said. "And because they're missing from the conversation, we don't hear about them in higher education spaces."

Nearly 80 community members gathered in the Van Der Ahe Family Suite of the Hannon Library on Sept. 17 to hear from the authors. Among them were students, staff, faculty, alumni, and members of the public.

Published in March 2024, their book serves in part as a response against the notion that countries across Latin America are monolingual and monocultural. It seeks to study the social and educational experiences of young immigrants in the United States, focusing on the Zapotec, Mixtec, and P'urhépecha communities. Perez and Vázquez conducted a three-year study in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas across the country, interviewing teachers, students, and analyzing survey data.
"There are 68 indigenous languages spoken in Mexico, and that's just Mexico alone," said Perez. "And many of those languages have as many as 15 different varieties. … That's the level of linguistic diversity we're talking about."
Perez immigrated from El Salvador to the U.S., where he earned his B.A. in psychology from Pomona College and his Ph.D. in child and adolescent development and educational psychology from Stanford University. He is a professor in the LMU School of Education and has received a plethora of awards for his research and scholarly work from the American Educational Research Association, the American Educational Studies Association, the Fulbright Scholars program, and more. Those accolades are thanks to his extensive research in the social and psychological processes associated with academic success and access to higher education among immigrant, undocumented, indigenous, and deported students in the U.S. and Mexico.
"What we really wanted to do, in the most vivid way possible, was capture the stories and lived experiences of these communities, but we wanted to specifically focus on three groups to show diversity in experience," Perez said.

Each year, eight LMU professors are selected for Faculty Pub Night to speak on their latest publication in an inclusive conversation with intent to educate the entire community. The next Faculty Pub Night will take place on Oct. 15, when co-author Dolores Delgado Bernal will discuss her recent publication, "Feminista Pláticas as Methodological Disruption: Drawing Upon Embodied Knowledge, Vulnerability, Healing, and Resistance."