by Mina Khadem
This Spring we will be publishing a series of spotlight articles about multilingual students and faculty at DU. These articles are based on interviews that Dr. Kamila Kinyon and a group of multilingual students conducted about interviewees’ lived experiences, including continuing connection to heritage languages, role as writers and teachers at DU, and thoughts about multilingual and multicultural identity. This project is funded by a Faculty Research Fund Grant awarded to Dr. Kinyon for 2023-25. We welcome this opportunity to celebrate DU’s multilingual community.
Our world is full of diverse and complex linguistic relationships that help shape our everyday lives. It is particularly special to find individuals, intellects, investigators, and overall curious people who seek to explore these relationships. Luckily, Dr. Lina Reznicek-Parrado, a distinguished teaching professor and director of DU’s Spanish Heritage/Bilingual Speakers Program, is one of these people.
Dr. Reznicek-Parrado is originally from Colombia and spoke Spanish as her primary language. However, growing up she attended one of the only bilingual schools in her city, where most of her teachers were Canadian, and learned English. She explains that her relationship with English at first was purely academic, but as she went into high school this dynamic changed. English became an avenue into the broader world outside of her life in Colombia. Thanks to the encouragement of her teachers to explore the world, after graduating from high school, Dr. Reznicek-Parrado decided to live in Canada for about two years, where she only spoke English. She explains that the lines between Spanish being her first language and the dominance of English began to blur. She states that English “at that point in time it was really much more like my native language.” Ever since, she has lived her life “very bilingually,” embracing both Spanish and English in her personal and professional life, such as raising her two children in both languages.
Dr. Reznicek-Parrado explains that even though her life now is filled with the positivity of being bilingual, that was not always the case. While growing up, her newfound appreciation for English was not widely accepted by her family and community, as it was considered wildly “nontraditional”. Though she views her decision to leave Colombia differently now, she reflects that she felt like an outcast and wanted to find a world that would accept this “nontraditional” passion.
Throughout her career and personal experiences, Dr. Reznicek-Parrado’s relationship with being bilingual has evolved in many different ways, which has expanded her understanding of linguistics and the unique experiences that come with speaking multiple languages, such as the cultural identities and conflicts that are paired with them. However, caring for her connections with her family and her passion for her professional career have helped her carry a torch for Spanish, accentuating the necessity of its presence in her life.
Dr. Reznicek-Parrado’s personal linguistic experiences, rich connection to her native language, and sense of adventure equipped her with the adaptability, empathy, and understanding for her continued work with heritage Spanish speakers. She expresses that her work with heritage speakers is both enriching and rewarding because “there’s so much personal work that goes into figuring out who you are as a speaker of a language, especially if you have had, like maybe a broken relationship with that language which is very common for heritage speakers growing up.” Fueled with frustration and determination to expand the recognition of the heritage Spanish-speaking community, she established a program for heritage Spanish speakers at DU.
As a strong advocate and actor in the efforts to expand the field of Spanish pedagogy, Dr. Reznicek-Parrado emphasizes that learning how to teach heritage speakers is an essential part of this process. She expresses that understanding the bilingual realities of heritage speakers is “the future of our field. I mean, we live in a very globalized world. Bilingualism is very common… pushing that away and ignoring that it just makes no sense for anyone who speaks Spanish, who teaches Spanish nowadays.” If professors do not start to improve their efforts in trying to better acknowledge, “serve,” and teach heritage speakers, “What’s the point of being a Spanish teacher or professor?” she asks.
Dr. Reznicek-Parrado’s successful personal and professional journeys in exploring languages, combating challenges, and advocating for change in the world of Spanish linguistics, are inspiring to all multilingual individuals. She demonstrates that linguistic identities and relationships are complex, often demanding, and ever-changing, but that the acquisition of languages and bilingualism is something to celebrate. In some final remarks, Dr. Reznicek-Parrado encourages students and multilingual individuals to be comfortable with the uncomfortable “because when you do face the discomfort and you work hard… it can help you grow…You have so much potential already. But if you don’t work through what that all means, it’s hard to fulfill that potential.”