This book looks at language practices in Mexican American households in Tucson (Arizona), using language as a window to peer into the complexities of women's and children's lives in the borderlands. The notion is presented that the complexity inherent in the borderlands in general and in Tucson in particular is a formative factor in the language socialization of Tucson's Mexican-origin children. Four themes are developed: (1) language is at the heart of identity, and multilingual abilities can expand the possibilities for individual development; (2) borderlands women respond to their experiences of hybridity by modifying their linguistic and cultural practices; (3) the usual conceptualization of "parental involvement" is skewed toward the dominant discourses of the school, as demonstrated by mothers switching to the language of the teacher during homework sessions with their children; and (4) language use is presented within a framework of "language ideology" reflecting historical, social, and political contexts of language learning. Chapters are: "Tucson: A Place in the Borderlands"; "Las Familias"; "When the Facts Won't Stay Put: Finding Emotion in All the Wrong Places"; "The Hearts of the Children: Emotion, Language, and Identity"; "Negotiating Ideologies across Social Memories"; "Testimonios of Border Identities: 'Una mujer acomedida donde quiera cabe'"; "Household Language Use: The Push and the Pull"; "Where's the Culture?"; and "Beyond the 'Disuniting' of America: Implications for Schooling and Public Policy." (Contains approximately 240 references and an index.) (SV)