Ana Celia Zentella

Ana Celia Zentella, Professor Emerita (University of California/San Diego and Hunter College/ CUNY), is an anthro-political linguist recognized for her research on U.S. LatinU languages, language socialization, “Spanglish”, and “English-only” laws. In addition to her award winning community ethnography, Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in NY (1997), she co-authored Spanish in New York: Language contact, dialectal leveling, and structural continuity (2012) with Ricardo Otheguy, and edited three volumes, Building on Strength: Language and Literacy in Latino Families and Communities  (2005), Multilingual San Diego (2009), and Multilingual Philadelphia (2010). Recent articles include a study of language and identity on the Tijuana- San Diego border by Mexican-origin college students and at a border high school, and  Puerto Rican assimilation to Mexican Spanish in San Diego. In 1996, Manhattan’s Borough President, Ruth Messinger, declared October 30 “Doctor Ana Celia Zentella Day”, for “her leading role in building appreciation for language diversity and respect for language rights.”  In 2015, the Latino Studies section of the Latin American Studies Assn honored Zentella as Public Intellectual of the Year. In 2016, she received the Award for Public Outreach & Community Service from the Society for Linguistic Anthropology.