Northern Shores Southern Borders: Revelations of a Bilingual Life

August, 1968. Fifteen-year-old preacher's kid leaves her small Midwestern town (where pronouncing "tortilla" correctly meant you were bilingual, and eating one made you multicultural) to spend three weeks in Saltillo, Mexico, on a language-study cultural immersion stay. A taste of chili peppers, machismo, and mariachi not only improved her vocabulary, but led her to enroll in a college semester in Spain with its Moorish palaces, historical conquistadores, and life under the rule of a dictat...