Leslie Hernandez: Excelling in Bilingualism, Biliteracy, and Braille!

This is the remarkable story of Leslie Hernández, who immigrated from Mexico to the United States on her 4th birthday, as her parents sought better health care for her. As an infant, Leslie was diagnosed with retinal blastoma, a type of eye cancer, which ultimately led to total blindness. Upon arriving in the US, Leslie was preschool age, so her parents enrolled her in the preschool at the New Mexico School for the Blind. They later enrolled her in the Albuquerque Public Schools, whose Program for the Blind and Visually Impaired at Zia Elementary helped her with Orientation and Mobility skills, along with academics. But that’s not all. While enrolled in the V.I. program, she was also enrolled in Zia’s dual-language program, where she excelled in English and in Spanish, learning to read and write in Braille— in both languages! After a gap in her dual-language education in middle school, due to staffing shortages, Leslie chose to take on the challenges of the bilingual program at Albuquerque High School, which culminated in the placement of the state and the district bilingual seals on her diploma upon graduation. On top of all this, Leslie was also a DACA student (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), burdened with an array of restrictions on her immigration status, including no access to lower interest federal student loans, such as Pell Grants. Dauntless, Leslie pursued various scholarships and enrolled first at Central New Mexico Community College and later at the University of New Mexico, both in Albuquerque, where she majored in Special Education. She later earned her state teaching license in Special Education. We also discuss the difference between acquiring and learning a language.