Latin American models of "intercultural-bilingual" education may be inappropriate for multilingual, interethnic regions such as Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast, where five indigenous and Afro-Caribbean minorities interact in overlapping territories. Examination of one such program and of Coast people's complex linguistic and cultural practices suggests that such programs' efficacy in promoting cultural/linguistic maintenance and "interculturality" is limited by their binary conception and design. (Contains 85 references.) (Author/SV)