Tag Archives: Latino American Teachers

Jennifer Ruiz: International professional women’s soccer player and former teacher

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Jennifer Ruiz

Jennifer Ruiz: International professional women’s soccer player and former teacher

Did you know that many talented athletes were also teachers at some point in their lives? This is true of California’s Jennifer Ruiz-Willliams, a professional women’s soccer player who is also a former teacher.

Jennifer was born on August 9, 1983, in Anaheim, California. As a young woman, she attended Corona High School in Corona, Riverside County, California. While playing for Corona, Jennifer was named Most Valuable Player three times. In 1998 and 1999, she played with the Olympic Development Program District and State teams. In 2000, she played with the Southern California Blues U-16 team. That year, the squad garnered a national championship. The following year, Jennifer helped the U-17 squad to a second-place finish at the national championships. For these accomplishments, Jennifer was recognized as the Citrus Belt Athlete of the Year in 2001.

After her high school graduation, Jennifer enrolled at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, under the Teach for America program. She attended there from 2001 to 2004, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Communications. After her college graduation, to fulfill her obligation to Teach for America, Jennifer taught at an inner-city school in Los Angeles for two years. She later earned a Master’s degree in Education from Loyola Marymount University.

During the years she was working on her degree, Jennifer continued to play soccer, and her resume in the sport is impressive. She went to the Australia Cup competition in 2003 with the Mexico Women’s National Football Team. The team qualified for the Summer Olympics held in 2004 in Athens, Greece. In addition, she was part of the 2011 team that earned a Bronze Medal at the Pan American Games. From 2011 to 2012, Jennifer played for the Bay Area Breeze, part of the Women’s Premier Soccer League. She served as captain of that team. In 2013, the former teacher joined the Seattle Reign Football Club, part of the National Women’s Soccer League. She made seven appearances for the club during its inaugural season.

Even though she no longer teaches in the classroom, Jennifer has continued working with young people. In June 2012, Ruiz was a guest coach at the Julie Foudy Leadership Academy. She served as a director and coach of the Nashville Football Club, where she managed the development of the girls academy and mentored players on regional teams who competed in international competitions. For ten years, she has served as a youth soccer coach for the Palo Alto Soccer Club. In February, Jennifer accepted a position as an assistant soccer coach at California State University at Northridge.

Jennifer Ruiz-Williams: a genuine chalkboard champion.

English teacher and Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Alan Diaz

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Alan Diaz

Former English teacher and Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Alan Diaz

I always enjoy sharing stories about teachers who have exhibited talents in addition to those they use in their classrooms. One teacher like this is Alan Diaz, a former English teacher who has also won a Pulitzer Prize for photography.

Alan was born and raised in New York City. He was the son of Cuban immigrants, who decided to return to their native island in 1964 when Alan was a teenager. When he grew to adulthood in Cuba, Alan became a school teacher, while at the same time studying photography.

In 1978, Alan returned to the United States, where he continued his career as an English teacher. He also pursued his passion for photography. In 1994, Alan worked as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press, and in 2000 he became one of their staff photographers.

Alan is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of armed federal agents seizing a terrified Cuban refugee child, six-year-old Elian Gonzalez. The little boy’s mother had drowned off the coast of Florida as the two struggled to reach American shores. In the months preceding the seizure, Elian’s Miami-based relatives had been fighting for asylum for the child and his right to remain in the United States, despite the fact that his father in Cuba wanted him returned home. It was a battle the relatives ultimately lost, so the little boy was taken at gunpoint and sent back to Cuba. The gut-wrenching picture Alan took on that day earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.

After a career for the Associated Press that spanned 17 years, Alan decided to retire in 2017. The former teacher still lives in the Miami area.

You can view his award-winning photograph and read more about this amazing educator and photographer at the Washington Times.

Kindergarten teacher Edwin Sorto: His kids learn to salsa dance!

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Here’s a teacher you’ve just got to get a kick out of. He’s Edwin Sorto, a kindergarten teacher at KIPP Promise Academy, a public school in Washington, DC. In addition to his classroom responsibilities, Edwin is a professional salsa dancer, and he loves to teach his young students to dance, too!

To supplement the usual curriculum, Edwin has integrated dance into his lesson plans. He believes that learning to dance helps his students obtain a well-rounded education, and it teaches important life skills such as discipline and social skills. “They work incredibly hard at both academics and dance,” Edwin once explained. “This is just one more thing that keeps them engaged in school.” This amazing educator has the kids almost-expertly performing salsa, merengue, and bachata. He has even taught them choreography from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video.

Edwin was born in El Salvador, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 14. He was raised in a family where dance was a part of everyday life. Edwin believes that it’s best to learn how to dance when people are young because children pick up dance moves more easily and they are less inhibited than adults.

Edwin received his teacher training at Capital Teaching Residency, an organization which trains new educators in the DC area. There he partnered with a master teacher for one year at KIPP Promise Academy. Once he completed his training, he was allowed to create his own lesson plans. Now, groups of 25 to 30 students meet with him every day for his special afternoon classes where he leads physical education, art, and cultural activities.

When he’s not working with his kindergartners, Edwin travels around the country performing salsa with a dance team called Casineros. He also performs with Cazike, a Latin dance company run by his wife who also teaches at KIPP Promise Academy.

Enjoy this brief YouTube video of Edwin with his dancing kindergartners below:

Educator Dr. Rebecca Palacios: A 2014 inductee into the National Teachers Hall of Fame

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Rebecca Palacios

Early childhood educator Dr. Rebecca Palacios, in 2014, when she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Our nation’s schools are fortunate to enjoy the limitless talent and dedication of many remarkable Latino teachers. One of these is Dr. Rebecca Palacios, an early education teacher from Corpus Christi, Texas.

Rebecca has long been recognized as a champion for better education for Latino students. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, she learned about American discrimination against Latinos first-hand. Her father, a World War II veteran who worked for the public park service in Texas, often spoke to her about the discrimination faced by Latinos in America. He talked about not being able to eat in segregated restaurants or use segregated water fountains. He shared stories of rules that forbade him from speaking Spanish in school.

Despite the obstacles faced by Latinos in America, Rebecca excelled in school. In fact, she was the first in her family to pursue a higher education. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1975 in Early Childhood Education from the University of Texas, Austin. The following year she earned her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Texas A&M, Corpus Christi. In 1996, she completed the requirements for her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Texas, Austin.

Following her college graduation, Rebecca taught elementary school in the Corpus Christi Independent School District. There she taught Caucasian and Latino students in kindergarten, first grade, and third grade, first at Lamar Elementary and then at Zavala Elementary. Throughout her long and distinguished career, she became one of the most outspoken proponents of improved educational opportunities for Latino students. She also became one of the most celebrated early childhood educators in the country.

Rebecca’s career in Corpus Christi’ schools spanned more than 33 years. Following her retirement in 2010, she continued to work as a consultant for the district by mentoring other teachers. For her many contributions to the field of education, this chalkboard champion was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF) in Emporia, Kansas, in 2014. To learn more about Rebecca, read this post at NTHF.

Teacher Dolores Huerta dedicated her life to helping migrant farmworkers

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Dolores Huerta

Teacher Dolores Huerta dedicated her life to helping migrant farm workers.

Like many people who have heard of farm labor leader and civil rights advocate Cesar Chavez, I have also heard of his right-hand woman, Dolores Huerta, elected vice president of the United Farm Workers Union. But did you know she was also a teacher?

Raised in Stockton, California, Dolores graduated in 1955 with an AA and her teaching credentials from the College of the Pacific. After her college graduation, she accepted a teaching position in a rural Stockton elementary school. She had been teaching for only a short time when she realized she wanted to devote her vast energy to migrant farm workers and their families. “I couldn’t stand seeing farm worker children come to class hungry and in need of shoes,” she once explained. “I thought I could do more by organizing their parents than by trying to teach their hungry children.”

After just one year, Dolores resigned from her teaching position, determined to launch a campaign that would fight the numerous economic injustices faced by migrant agricultural workers. Joining forces with the legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez, the intrepid educator helped organize a large-scale strike against the commercial grape growers of the San Joaquin Valley, an effort which raised national awareness of the abysmal treatment of America’s agricultural workers. She also negotiated contracts which led to their improved working conditions. The rest, as they say, is history.

Although there are several fairly good juvenile biographies of this extraordinary woman, there is no definitive adult biography about her. The closest thing to it is A Dolores Huerta Reader edited by Mario T. Garcia. This book includes an informative biographical introduction by the editor, articles and book excerpts written about her, her own writings and transcripts of her speeches, and a recent interview with Mario Garcia. You can find A Dolores Huerta Reader on amazon. I have also included a chapter about this remarkable teacher in my second book, entitled Chalkboard Heroes.