page 37 Language Arts, Volume 99, Number 1, September 2021 Rosalyn Harvey-Torres and Carmela Valdez Nadie más puede contar tu historia: Rewriting Whose Stories Matter through an Antiracist Bilingual Writer’s Workshop Using antiracist pedagogy as a frame, this article explores a first-grade bilingual writer’s workshop that centered the lives of Latinx, Black, and immigrant students. talk about your story because no one else can tell it. Thank you little one.] This is just one instance where Carmela’s bilin- gual writer’s workshop offered space for center- ing students’ voices, experiences, and languages, especially in a society and political climate that has sought to silence them. Love (2019) poses poignant questions about people of color mattering in a coun- try that constantly dehumanizes them. She asks, How do you matter to a country that would rather in- carcerate you than educate you? How do you matter to a country that tears families apart because of arbitrary lines that instill terror, violence, and geographical sepa- ration rather than a compassion for humanity? . . . How do you matter to a country that rips children out of the hands of their parents and locks them in dog cages for seeking a better life? How do you matter to a country that measures you against a “gap” it created? (p. 2). In this article, we reflect on how centering stu- dents’ languages and lived experiences through a bilingual writer’s workshop was an act of honoring their lives—of asserting that they matter. We explore the ways Carmela’s writer’s workshop opened spaces for students to be vulnerable and share their stories. We also share how students used writing to communicate when distance separated them from loved ones, including parents who were incarcer- ated. We then reflect on an instance of anti-Blackness within Carmela’s classroom, and the ways mentor It is November and Carmela Valdez, a first-grade bilingual teacher, is at her kidney table engaging in a writing conference with Roman, a recently arrived Honduran immigrant student. Minutes earlier, she introduced students to the genre of personal narra- tive, or as she said, “escribiendo de cosas que están cercas a tu corazón” [writing about things that are close to your heart]. Taking this opportunity to write about something that matters to him, Roman begins to tell his teacher about his immigration journey. In Spanish, Roman describes starting in Honduras, traveling by car with his mom and baby nephew, crossing a river in an inner tube, being sep- arated from his nephew at the US/Mexico border, being incarcerated in an immigration detention cen- ter with his mother, and finally being released and reunited with his nephew. Carmela listens intently, asking questions to clarify and encouraging him to continue. Closing the conference, which until this point has been com- pletely oral, Carmela says, “¿Me puedes dibujar más de una parte? ¿Sí? ¿Qué parte vas a dibujar? [Can you draw me a little more about one part? Yes? What part will you draw?] Roman explains he will start by drawing the river crossing. Before he leaves the table, Carmela tells Roman, “Es importante que hables de tu historia porque nadie más puede contarlo. Gracias chiquito” [It’s important that you