-I am my language, - says the poet Gloria Anzaldua, because language is at the heart of who we are. But what happens when a person has more than one language? Is there an overlay of language on identity, and do we shift identities as we shift languages? More important, what identities do children construct for themselves when they use different languages in particular ways?

In this book, Norma Gonzalez uses language as a window on the multiple levels of identity construction in children--as well as on the complexities of life in the borderlands--to explore language practices...