Grácia Liliana Fernández: the Bilingual Heroine Who Made the Tempe Normal School Famous by Dr. Chris Marin

When Tempe Normal School was established in 1886, it had no Spanish curriculum nor a bilingual professor to teach Spanish to enrolled TNS students, despite the demand to train bilingual teachers to educate Spanish-speaking pupils in Arizona’s elementary schools. They were taught by white teachers who didn’t speak nor understand Spanish. Spanish-speaking children continued to fail and progress in their education. Twenty-one years later, Bilingual Education was born at TNS in 1907. Dr. Christine Marin, Historian/Archivist and Professor Emeriti at ASU, is the founder and director of the Chicano/a Research Collection and Archives at the Hayden Library at ASU. Dr. Marin is President of the Tempe History Society and is a native of Globe, Arizona and grew up on the legendary street, Euclid Avenue.