Molly Arévalo
Molly Arévalo is a lifelong educator and language learner whose journey reflects the complexity of heritage language identity. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Molly was raised in an English-only household in the mainland U.S. She later worked to reclaim Spanish as an academic, professional, and personal language. She studied Spanish and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, refined her Spanish while living in Chile, and began her teaching career with Teach For America on the U.S.–Mexico border in South Texas. Molly went on to teach bilingual elementary students, adult ESL and citizenship classes, and Spanish in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, earning two master’s degrees from California State University, Los Angeles in Bilingual/Multicultural Education and TESOL. She now serves as Associate Director of the Language Learning Center at the University of New Mexico, where she supports language learning across campus.