Dr. Arizmendi at ASHA!

I’d been reluctant to confirm whether I’d be at ASHA for the last few months, partly out of fear and uncertainty. With images of a militarized DC, flight cancellations due to the longest government shutdown in history, and fear and intimidation tactics targeting my community, the dissonance was overwhelming. What made it even stranger was how many people (and the organization itself) never acknowledged or recognized this same reality in their own decision-making. . Was it fear of naming it? Or were they simply unconcerned?

All three of my presentations addressed critical questions that interrogate and challenge the current systems that we operate under in the professions and in academia. All of them contained words that are now considered banned in research and in many institutions. What better place than DC to make sure those words disrupted the molecules in the air, right in the heart of the very system responsible for these attacks across the country?

On the first day of the conference, I learned that my FLiP paper made the 2025 ASHA Journals Top 10 list, coming in at No. 2 out of over 800 articles — the very manuscript that many expert reviewers in the field turned away. Some said it was “irrelevant for SLPs”, that I needed to make sure it was “for say, immigrant communities”, and that they did not believe young children could serve as such a critical linguistic bridge for their families and communities so early in their lives.

Just before each of my presentations, I saw someone who tried to stop, discourage, and alter some part of me at some point in my career. Just after each of my presentations, I was so grateful to have pushed through each of those trials. They often taught me a lot, especially what not to be.

This week, gratitude is the loudest thing in me. Gratitude that fear has not silenced me. Gratitude for my team, my students, my community. Gratitude that we are still here, speaking truth into rooms that have tried to keep it out.

#padelante