Legal victories (for instance, Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Indep. Sch. Dist., 1970; Plyer v. Doe, 1982; Castañeda v. Pickard, 1981) and scholarship highlighting the marginalization of Latinx students in US public schools (García, 2009; Valdés, 1998, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999) have elevated concern for the rights of these students. Following the argument of Espinoza & Vossoughi (2014) that educational rights are manifest not only juridically but also through social interaction, this paper draws upon interviews and observations of a 5th grade teacher in a bilingual program to demonstrate how dispositions toward caring (Valenzuela, 1999), critical consciousness (Freire, 2005), and sociocultural learning (Vygotsky, 1978) uphold the dreams and potentialities of schooling in one bilingual classroom. This work posits, along the lines of Espinoza & Vossoughi (2014), that educational rights are upheld or abridged in the day-to-day exchanges that take place in learning situations. Thus, the ways teachers regard and treat pupils underlie the ability of public schooling to affirm students’ dignity and learning capacities. I draw from Valenzuela’s (1999) and Freire’s (2005) frameworks for caring - “sustained reciprocal relationships between teachers and students as the basis for all learning” (Valenzuela, 1999, p. 61) - and critical consciousness - “a strong sense of social responsibility and of engagement in the task of transforming society” (Freire, 2005, p. 10) - respectively, to outline a pedagogy that affirms, supports, and empowers Latinx students. Data was collected through classroom ethnography and semi-structured interviews in a 5th grade bilingual elementary classroom, following guidance by Heath and Street (2008) prescribing iterative observation, reflection, and consultation of literature to elucidate emerging lines of inquiry. Interviews and classroom interactions were audio recorded and transcribed for analysis then coded for statements of teaching philosophy, beliefs about language, and for practices aligned to Freire’s (2005, p. 40) dialogical, criticism-stimulating method or Arellano, Cintrón, Flores, & Berta-Ávila’s characteristics of well-prepared bilingual teachers (2016, p. 41) that include leveraging cultural funds of knowledge, advocating for social justice perspectives, and facilitating students’ high academic achievement. Analysis of transcripts for two separate interviews and three classroom episodes demonstrates how the focal teacher in the study affirmed students’ bilingual language practices, cultural backgrounds, and interests with his curriculum. Interviews show nuanced understanding of how bilinguals use their full linguistic repertoires for learning and self-expression as well as concern for students’ academic and socioemotional growth. Classroom interactions similarly exemplify the teacher’s investment in sociocultural and culturally sustaining pedagogies (Paris, 2012) as students’ own inquiry and cultural resources guide two separate lessons, while commitment to dialogue and horizontal relationships (Freire, 2005) shapes the act of disciplining a student in the third situation. Through dialogic engagement, student-centered learning activities, and concern for students’ academic and socioemotional well-being, the focal teacher embodied a caring and critically conscious pedagogy. This example provides teachers and teacher educators concrete ideas of how to support Latinx students in the day-to-day interactions of school, mindful that “beautifully designed educational experiences can give rise to rich and variegated social dreams” (Espinoza & Vossoughi, 2014, p. 309).