Through the third-floor windows on January 20th, you’d be able to see the bunches of students making their way around the outskirts of the school down below. While tiny from above, the cause for their walkout stretches across the nation. As they walk along the ice-covered sidewalks, they protest ICE, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that has caused unrest throughout the United States, and has been increasing its presence in Massachusetts.

On that same third floor, some students find themselves looking down from Room 309, Señora Gonzalez’s room, adorned with flags on the ceiling tiles, Hispanic symbols on the walls, and Spanish words on the whiteboards. It is in these four walls that students who take Spanish classes IV, AP, and VI meet to further their understanding of Latin culture and the Spanish language.

Ever since graduating from college, Señora Gonzalez has been a teacher. Her work began in her home country, Ecuador, teaching students for many years before immigrating to the United States. Yet, the land she stood on made little difference in her goal: to educate the masses. 

When she arrived to the United States, her work was driven by others like her– from Spanish-speaking immigrants looking to earn their GED’s (General Education Development), to adults learning English in ESOL classes (English for Speakers of Other Languages), and those learning to get their licenses back after having their own suspended in Spanish– Señora Gonzalez made those classes happen. 

However, even as the instructor, she always considered herself a student in the process as well. “In a way, I’ve always been following that path, learning from teaching," Gonzalez entered the world of American High Schools, where she found that just like the adults in her past GED and ESOL classes, her students became her teachers on American culture. She taught at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School for a brief two years before moving to Milton High in 2009, where she has been teaching ever since. Over the past 16 years, she happily reflects on her time spent in Milton’s community, stating that she’s “blessed to be teaching my language, my culture.” 

Her style and methods have evolved and changed over her multiple decades of teaching. Now, she’s extremely more comfortable with engaging with students and connecting cultures to those of Latin America and other Spanish-speaking countries. In each lesson, she aims to let her students feel the same love and pride she has for Spanish Culture, holding firm to the truth to which she says, “I’m not teaching them, I'm guiding them.”

At times, she has felt that due to her growing up in Ecuador, the absence of the typical American high school experience left her distant from her students. However, the difference between her upbringing and the upbringing of her students is exactly what captivates them and makes her classroom filled with much more than desks, but stories that have shaped her into the teacher she is today.

“I love when she tells authentic stories from when she was in Ecuador,” comments senior Maya Sekhar, who currently takes Gonzalez’s level VI course, “she compares it to her life now, like how she was in shock when someone gave her a cuy [a traditional meat popular in South America], or when she talked about how she hates roses.” 

Students gladly recall memories of learning Latin dances in the early morning and comprehending instructions in another language. “It was an extremely engaging lesson and connected us through true Hispanic culture in a unique but fun way,” says senior Angela Truong, a former student of Señora Gonzalez for both the AP and level IV courses.

Immigration remains an important and extensive subject in Room 309. Spanish IV begins discussing the general topic of immigration in the course, and AP students continue diving deeper into immigration by studying an array of topics that come into contact with the subject, such as Desafíos Gobales (Global Challenges), Identidades Personales y Públicas (Personal and Public Identities, and Familias y Comunidades (Families and Communities). Spanish VI, a class primarily made for seniors, takes these topics one step further by discussing human rights.

Senior Sofie Profit, who has been a student of Señora Gonzalez for the last three years, appreciates her approach, stating, “I love that Señora Gonzalez gives us a space to talk about current events and share our opinions.”

As an Ecuadorian immigrant herself, Señora Gonzalez strives to have her students be proud of their own heritage– what she calls the “Aha!” moment, when her students start listing the contributions of their families’ heritage in, “food, celebration, sport, [and] art.” It is that diverse aspect of her students that she adores and finds precious. “When I go back to Ecuador and teach, everyone’s Ecuadorian. I miss my students in America because everyone's from a little bit ‘por parte de tu padre, por parte de tu madre’ [on your father’s side, on your mother’s side].’”

Although the racial makeup of Milton MA doesn’t compare to its neighboring towns or sanctuary cities north of it, Gonzalez stresses that all immigrants from all over the world, young or old, have made an impact, especially the ancestors of her students. She uses “los tres P’s, productos, practicas y perspectivos [The three P’s, products, practices, and perspectives],” to dissect the contributions of immigrants, using “Spanish as a bridge” to overcome trivial barriers in her classes while learning grammar and tenses.

As the sound of students marching in the bitter cold becomes softer and softer, some enter that classroom on the third floor, Señora Gonzalez’s classroom. From there they learn that the stories of immigrants matter— whether they are a mother, a politician, a nurse, a janitor, a hairstylist, or even a high school Spanish teacher. Even as ICE breaks or slams the doors in front of others, Señora Gonzalez’s door remains open as she excitedly waits for what her newest student may teach her about their culture.