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This article explores the communicative interactions of one Latino youth, Lorenzo, in an English Language Arts classroom located in an intensely-segregated Black and Latino urban community. While the larger city in which this school is located is known for its diverse cosmopolitan population characteristic of super-diversity, I argue that Lorenzo’s language practices index his socialization in contact zones shaped by Black and Latina/o cultural and linguistic practices. While sociolinguistic perspectives on super-diversity might offer an explanation for the repertoires of languages uttered by Lorenzo and his Black and Latina/o peers, the language practices explored are reflective of the cultural historical experiences of Lorenzo’s intensely-segregated community which have been practiced prior to any conceptualization of super-diversity. Drawing on super-diversity research, language ideological inquiry and language crossing and sharing scholarship, this article calls for further attention to the cultural historical past of Black and Latina/o communities in future discussions of super-diversity in the U.S.
