When Damián Wilson, an associate professor in The University of New Mexico Department of Spanish and Portuguese, first saw Spanish-language highways signs at the start of the COVID pandemic shutdown, he was happy to see the state reaching out to its many Spanish-speaking residents. An estimated 29 percent of the state’s population over age 5 speaks Spanish at home, according to Census Bureau statistics. But soon after, Wilson and members of his sociolinguistics class, Spanish of the Southwest, found that there were differences in pandemic messaging from the state that potentially left Spanish speakers at a disadvantage. The class went to work to find a solution.