Elba Rosario Sanchez was a pioneering leader in the innovative field of Spanish for Spanish Speakers (SPSS) at the university level.   The SPSS Program at UC Santa Cruz helped ensure the academic success and retention of hundreds of Chicano and Latino students grounded in a pedagogy of social justice and support and mentoring throughout their university experience.   Elba shares her own migration story coming to San Francisco, California in her childhood and shares her struggles to maintain her own native Spanish while learning a new language and culture.