Page 24 - May/June HER 2020

24 MAY HER
HER Educator
Story by Cassidy Kendall, photography by Grace Brown & submitted
Lorena Díaz Fitzpatrick grew up with the dream of becoming a teach- er, but at the age of 17, when life’s insurmountable hardships interfered, she was forced to take a hiatus from working toward her dream. Fast-for- ward 27 years later, when the opportunity to pursue her dream arose, she took initiative and picked up right where she left off.
Fitzpatrick grew up “very poor” with her mother and six siblings in Venustiano Carranza Nayarit, a small town in the middle of Mexico’s mountains.
“Mom was always working ... and I didn’t really have any role models in my life as a little girl. Eventually, when I started elementary school, I had a male teacher for first, second, third, and fourth grade,” she said.
Her teacher, whom she referred to as Professora Alfredo, was the first “positive role model” she had in her life.
“I remember one time I asked him, ‘Professora Alfredo, what can I do to be like you?’ And I remember he said, ‘Oh! OK? You want to be a teacher?’ And I said, ‘Yes,’” Fitzpatrick said. “In my mind, a teacher was like that; (a teacher was) a good role model and helped everyone and every kid regardless of what they looked like.”
“So I asked him that,” she continued, “and he said, ‘Oh, it’s easy, Lore- na. All you have to do is study hard and dedicate yourself to studying and do well in school for 17 years’ ... and I said, ‘OK, you know what, because I’m going to be a teacher.’ And he said, ‘I’m sure you will. If you dedicate yourself to your studies, you will be a teacher.’ So that was like the first time I heard someone telling me I could do something. I just remember hanging on to that.”
As the years passed, Fitzpatrick said school became her “safe place” while she juggled the schoolwork and housework to help her mother care for her siblings. She noted her mother was supportive of her dream of becoming a teacher “to a degree” throughout her schooling.
“For (mom), it was impossible because she would never be able to pay for my education,” she said. “And now that I’m a grown-up, (I realize) she was right. There was no way that she was going to be able to pay for my career. But at the time, I remember it was not fair. I didn’t want to be
24 May/June 2020 ¯ HER MAGAZINE
taking care of babies my whole life; I wanted to have a future.”
When Fitzpatrick was accepted into Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit her senior year of high school, her mother’s denial matched her excite-
ment at the door.
“I got home with my acceptance letter, and I said, ‘Mom, look, I’m
going to be a teacher, I told you, I’m accepted.’ And she said, ‘No. You’re not going to University. Quit saying that, I need you to take care of your brothers and sisters.’ And I remember just feeling so defeated,” she said. “It was hard for her being a single mom, and I don’t blame her, but at that time, I just didn’t understand that. ... In Mexico, there is no such thing as student loans. There are no free books; you pay for everything.”
Around the same time, Fitzpatrick said her youngest brother died from a “minor illness” due to her mother not having enough money to take him to the doctor.
“I remember thinking back in Mexico that the reason we were going through so much hardship was because we had no money,” she said. “And I remember thinking there was a world out there to be explored. I always knew through school that the world was a lot bigger than the little town I grew up in. I remember wanting to go out there and see if there was an opportunity for me to do better, at least to help my mom provide for my brothers and sisters.”
Fueled by her dream to become a teacher, Fitzpatrick and her brother devised a plan for her to cross the Mexican border undocumented to find her birth father, who she knew lived in California, to convince him to help her continue her education.
She and a friend crossed the border together and showed up on the doorstep of her friend’s aunt, who lived in California. The aunt gave Fitzpatrick one week to track down her father before kicking her out. For one week she called the phone number she had for her father but got no answer. It wasn’t until years later she found out her father had died in an accident a few years prior to her efforts to contact him.