Brazil, with a ‘z’ or an ‘s’?” asks a girl. “In Spanish, it’s with an ‘s,’ in English with a ‘z,'” another kid answers. Just another day in a bilingual class at a Los Angeles school.
A sign that proclaims “Bienvenido/Welcome” is pinned above the blackboard of this class in a bilingual program at Franklin High School.
It’s Thursday morning, and in history class, teacher Blanca Claudio asks her 11- and 12- year old students to find Mesoamerica — an area stretching from southern Mexico through Central America — on the map.
Half of the population of Los Angeles — the second most populous US city after New York — is of Hispanic origin, and Latinos make up 16 percent of the US population, making them the largest single ethnic minority group in the country.