Spencer, María Gutiérrez, 1919-1992.

Born in La Cruces, N.M. Educator; promoted bilingual/bicultural education. Director of the New Mexico Bilingual/Bicultural Demonstration Centers from 1967-1978.

María Gutiérrez Spencer was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, December 17, 1919 to Jesús Borunda Gutiérrez and Aurora Valdéz Gutiérrez. She was married to Lewis Spencer in July of 1955 and had two daughters, Maria Noni and Laura. At the age of five, Maria Gutiérrez returned from her first day in school to announce that the nuns "did not know how to talk". They made noises that did not make sense. María spoke Spanish and the nuns English. For a week, a young nun punished María for not understanding English. This experience led to a lifetime mission to "save those students who had been discarded as non-learners." In Silver City, New Mexico, Ms. Spencer developed an English-as-a-second- language program called BOLD (Bicultural Orientation and Language Development) to teach English and thinking skills and help students develop a feeling of self worth. She made sure that Hispanics and Native American students knew their own heros and literature.

The only girl in her chemistry and physics classes at Las Cruces High, María graduated salutatorian. At the University of California at Berkeley, she took every course dealing with Latin America and Spain and was the first women teacher's assistant in two different departments-History and Political Science. She graduated from Berkeley with a B.A, and received a Masters degree from New Mexico State University with a major in Spanish and minor in Education.

María Gutiérrez Spencer began her teaching career at the Riverside California Polytechnic High School. She taught in the Las Cruces and Silver City, New Mexico public schools from 1948-1967, and was director of the Silver City and Deming, New Mexico Bilingual/Bicultural Demonstration Centers from 1967-1978. These centers became, under her tutelage, federal demonstration and teacher training centers. The centers won the National Pacesetter Award, the National Replication Award from the U.S. Office of Education and the Western States Expo Award from the U.S. Commissioner of Education. Among her many personal awards are the Distinguished Women of New Mexico (New Mexico Woman's Caucus, 1975); New Mexico Bilingual Association Hall of Fame Award, 1978; Wonder Woman National Award, 1984; New Mexico Public Service Award, 1988 and the Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexican Women, 1989.

Ms. Gutiérrez was engaged in writing a book on Indo-Hispanic peoples and bilingual/bicultural education when she died. "She was a friend to Chicanos, to the poor, to women and children. And she was a formidable enemy to any who did not support those causes (El Reportero, Silver City, New Mexico 8-19-1992)."