This article presents data from two yearlong ethnographic studies of the biliteracy
instruction and development of young Latina/o children in two counter-hegemonic
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California’s Proposition 227. The author first describes the struggle that
the teachers engaged in as they sought to resist the proposition’s
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bilingualism and biliteracy. Next, utilizing trenchant examples of the instruction,
practices, and products of biliteracy in the classrooms, the article creates an
impressionistic portrait of the strategies, possibilities, and limitations of
pursuing biliteracy in this monolingual milieu. The author concludes by offering
several theoretical and practical reflections on young children’s
biliteracy development in less-than-ideal political and programmatic settings.
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