Over the past few weeks, the IRC has asked members of our community to nominate Illinois teachers working with multicultural, multilingual students who are going above and beyond, and now, we’re celebrating them and highlighting their work. Keep an eye out for these features in the coming months – and if you’d like to nominate someone, email leanet@cntrmail.org.
Next up is Milagros Otero, a Bilingual Diverse Learners Teacher at Richard Edwards School in Chicago.
Says Maria Rivera, who nominated her: “Ms. Otero has dedicated her entire life enriching the lives of diverse learners, English language learners, and her colleagues. She recently published her first multicultural book in Spanish and English, El cabello de Gregorina/Gregorina’s Hair.”
Along Milagros Otero’s journey as a bilingual special education teacher in CPS, she began to notice the same problem in every classroom, at all levels of expertise—the bilingual material didn’t reflect the cultures or experiences of her students, or the translations were off. “My kids don’t only eat apple pie,” she says. “They eat conchas and pasteles.”
In an effort to be the change she wanted to see in bilingual kid lit, Otero decided to write a bilingual, multicultural; children’s book—El cabello de Gregorina/Gregorina’s Hair—inspired by her own experiences and family. Using her middle name, Gregorina, for her protagonist, Otero also drew inspiration from her multicultural, multiracial family, where everyone looks different. “I reflect the diversity, the uniqueness of the individual,” she says. “I also talk about bullying, and how sometimes that can start with siblings or family, and self-esteem.”
In the book, Gregorina, a dark-skinned girl with textured hair, is learning how to take care of her hair and celebrate what makes her unique. She says the book has been helpful to her students because it reflects their real experiences. “Last year, the dean of the school came to me because an African-American student was bullied because of her hair, exactly like what my book portrayed,” Otero says. “We read the book together and discussed it, and it was really helpful for her.”
Otero originally wrote El cabello de Gregorina in Spanish and had it professionally translated. For her second book in the series, the upcoming Gregorina in Chicago, inspired by her own journey from Venezuela to Chicago, she plans to translate herself. She hopes to continue the series and tailor it to specific subjects or areas of interest relevant to her students.
For educators who are seeking quality, culturally relevant bilingual Spanish books, Otero recommends the organization Milibrohispano, which features a collection of Spanish-speaking authors from around the world. She encourages educators to expose students to literature in their heritage languages. “They get scared because students will test at the end in English,” she says. “But they need a rich vocabulary to have a good understanding and better transition from one language to the second language.”
Another reason Otero is excited about her newfound status as a published author? The opportunity to be a possibility model for her students. “They see that they can do anything they want to,” she says. “Your dreams are the limit.”
