Growing up in Texas, Dr. Veronica Benavides didn’t speak Spanish, the only language spoken by her grandparents. Her parents decided to raise her in English only, an effort to shield her from the shame and punishments they experienced when speaking Spanish at school.

Vero soon realized that español wasn’t the only thing missing  from her educational upbringing. She’d never seen herself reflected in the curriculum, period. As Vero pursued a career in education, she always sought to create linguistically and culturally affirming learning spaces and resources.

After her first child was born, Vero moved to her partner’s native Denmark. Suddenly, she found herself in her grandparents’ shoes — raising a child in a country whose dominant language she didn’t speak. The next generation of her family was yet again at risk of losing the heritage language she’d fought to resurrect.

Vero decided to raise her son in Spanish. And while she didn’t speak it perfectly herself, she wanted him to grow up not only knowing the language, but celebrating it. She wanted him to see accents as normal and interesting. And she wanted him to understand that learning a heritage language wasn’t about perfection, but connection.

Understanding that it takes a village (of educators and families, say) to teach and sustain heritage languages, Vero began developing the resources her child, and her childhood self, deserved. Bilingual Generation was born out of this desire to foster multilingualism with rich learning opportunities for kids in school and at home.