Grácia Liliana Fernández, a twenty-four -year-old bilingual high school and elementary school teacher of Spanish and English from Dexter, Maine, arrived on a postal service stage from Holbrook to St. Johns, Apache County, on October 17, 1900. She was an 1898 graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maine, and had previously taught English in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

 

By 1890, Apache County was dominated in certain areas by a growing population that was largely Spanish-speaking and Mexican. Their children were taught by Anglo teachers who did not speak nor understand the Spanish language. As a result, these students did not progress nor advance in their schooling. School administrators and officials recognized the need for bilingual education in the schools and begin to lay the groundwork to bring Spanish-speaking teachers to the schools and enable Spanish-speaking children to succeed and do well. Grácia Liliana Fernández was hired to teach English to the Spanish-speaking Mexican children in the local schools in the rural communities of San Antonio, St. Johns, Concho, and El Tule. She shared teaching assignments with another Spanish-speaking teacher.

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Grácia used the popular McGuffey’s Eclectic Primer to teach children how to read in English. They learned how to pronounce words in English and how to write and spell them in English. School attendance increased and Mexican children did better under her tutelage. Over time, the local school board appointed Grácia as Principal of the St. Johns and the El Tule schools. At the annual Apache County Teacher’s Institutes, Grácia delivered presentations on the importance of bilingual education and her work was recognized by educators in the county. Tempe Normal School (now Arizona State University) administrators recognized the promise of bilingual education and realized they must also meet the challenge of preparing future teachers to educate Spanish-speaking children in Maricopa County and surrounding regions.

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In 1906, Tempe Normal School’s President, Arthur John Matthews, initiated a dual appointment that brought Grácia Liliana Fernández to Tempe in 1907 as a member of the faculty at the Tempe Normal School. She was the first Hispanic librarian to oversee the Tempe Normal School (TNS) Library. Grácia anticipated Tempe Normal School’s development of a bilingual education program and ordered Spanish-language books, literature, encyclopedias, newspapers, dictionaries and literature for the TNS Library. She also served as Tempe Normal School’s first professor of Spanish.

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In 1910, Grácia developed and implemented a new curriculum of Spanish that enabled TNS students to enroll in her beginning and advanced courses in Spanish. Tempe Normal School established its importance in training bilingual teachers and met the constant demand for teachers to enable Spanish-speaking pupils to become successful students and progress in their education in the growing Arizona Territory. Grácia Liliana Fernández legitimized and introduced Spanish as a course of study and contextualized its regional importance at Tempe Normal School. She integrated the Tempe Normal School into the larger Normal School movement of the United States. Tempe Normal School opened a form of higher education to students from diverse cultures, economic and religious backgrounds.

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Professor Fernández also affirmed for her Mexican American students the value of their own bilingualism and culture and reminded them of their value as teachers who contributed to the educational development of the Arizona Territory. She remained at Tempe Normal School until 1912, when she returned to new bilingual teaching responsibilities and assignments in New York. Her impact as a bilingual librarian and professor of Spanish at Tempe Normal School from 1907 to 1912 endures and was evident each time a bilingual teacher enabled Spanish-speaking children to learn English and become successful students.