Growing up in Texas as a second-generation immigrant and woman of Cuban descent, Cristina González says she and her family dealt with the challenges including racism, prejudice and resentment towards her roots.
Amidst this, González’s parents understood the value of a good education.
The González family lived in a primarily white, middle-class neighborhood, and González recalls feeling embarrassed about being Hispanic and a native Spanish speaker.
“We didn’t have cell phones during this time, so if I was at my friend’s house and left to go to another friend’s house, I was supposed to call. But I didn’t want to speak Spanish, so I would get in trouble all the time because I had the ‘luxury’ of looking white,” González said.
Now, González says she is proud to embody her culture and publicize her heritage to those around her.
“People look at me and think ‘How do you speak Spanish? Did you marry someone?’ I’m like ‘No! I’m the one I’m the Hispanic. It’s me!’” she said.
González attended Texas A&M University and Baylor University, for her bachelor’s and master’s, respectively. She then took an opportunity to become an Assistant Lecturer in Spanish at A&M and credits her experience in this area to the position she now obtains.
“I kind of got into it haphazardly. When I was working on my master’s degree one of the ways they help pay for it is they give you a TA-ship, where you actually get to teach a class,” she said. “I knew Spanish because my parents were from Cuba, but I didn’t know Spanish [entirely]. I learned how much I really didn’t know about Spanish before I had to teach it.”
This led González to pursue a career in teaching. More specifically, Spanish courses.
She continued teaching college-level Spanish at the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Dallas.
“I worked in higher education before Greenhill, so I’m much more used to college-age students than high school kids, so that’s been a lot of getting used to,” González said.
González says she wanted a change from teaching at the college level, so she decided to look for jobs at the high school level. A friend suggested that she explore the idea of working at Greenhill.
“We were very excited about the diversity of experience she brought. She had some experience teaching high school, but she brought a lot of experience teaching adult-level students and teaching beyond just general language classes,” Upper School Modern Classical Language Department Chair Luis Gallegos said. “[González] brought a unique perspective and a different kind of approach that we thought would really enhance the diversity of our Spanish program.”
González teaches sections of Spanish I and III with predominantly freshman and sophomore students.
“I like her as a teacher,” freshman Chase Porter said. “She’s a fair grader, she’s really nice and she is brutally honest if we do something wrong. She definitely helps us learn Spanish and makes it easy for new speakers.”
González says she admires the environment Greenhill offers and recalls feeling welcomed by the community.
“I think everyone here is super supportive. Whether it’s students, faculty or staff, everybody has been nothing but nice and helpful,” González said.
