When her now-grown son, Jeffrey, got roped onto a bilingual track for something as arbitrary as his surname and despite the fact that he didn't speak Spanish, Alvarez raised hell. Aided by a community advocate, Alvarez succeeded in removing her son and, later, other students from the bilingual program. That advocate was Rosie Lopez. That's right, Lopez. Rosie is Sen. Lopez's wife.
West Phoenix is a small world.
Rosie Lopez, founder of the Arizona Hispanic Community Forum, has a reputation as a fighter for educational issues and parents' concerns. And so does her husband. Rosie Lopez is a former bilingual teacher. She supported bilingual education then, and she still does. But she also believes that parents should have a voice in their children's education and a choice in whether they stay in bilingual programs.