Emma Violand-Sánchez knew little English when she arrived in Virginia from Bolivia in the summer of 1961 as a high school senior. In the decades that followed, she would lose a husband in Vietnam, raise two children as a single mother, and become a transformative figure in American public education and in service to immigrants and refugees, advocating for bilingual education and expanding opportunities for immigrant students and their families.

Part testament to the power of suffering and faith and to the challenges women face across the world, Dreams and Shadows is also a meditation on politics, class, the immigrant experience, acculturation as a lifelong process, and the importance of maintaining bicultural identity against the myth of the 

American "melting pot." On a deeper level, it is also the story of a life lived in service-and about the ways that suffering and joy are contained each within the other, binding us all together across cultures and boundaries.

Emma Violand-Sánchez was born in Bolivia and is an educator and fierce advocate on behalf of immigrants and refugees. She received her BS and MS degrees from Radford University and her doctorate at George Washington University. During her forty-year career with Arlington Public Schools, Emma became the first Latina elected to the school board. She has consulted throughout the US and Latin America and published widely in the field of education, in both Spanish and English. Her awards include a Fulbright Fellowship, AAUW American Fellowship, the James Hunter III Human Rights Award, the MALDEF Community Service Award, Washingtonian of the Year, an Arlington Spirit of Community Award, and the 2024 Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievement Award.