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For Hispanic Heritage Month, Black Hawk College honors and celebrates all of our Hispanic students, staff, faculty and alumni. Explore these spotlight stories from across our campus community.
Black Hawk College English professor and Writers Guild advisor Claudia Alonzo’s love for language arts and teaching runs deep. From a young age, she and her mom read, wrote and played school together, and she wrote reports for fun.
In her early twenties, while taking a poetry anthology class, she learned that her maternal grandmother was a poet who felt shy about her talent, something she often thinks about.
Being a Latina professor remains one of the most rewarding parts of Alonzo’s job, especially since she never had a Latina instructor as a student.
“[Female students have said] ‘I took your class because I saw your last name, or my friend had you, and she told me about you,” Alonzo said. “I never thought I would have someone who looked like you be my teacher.”
Traditions and sharing culture remain important parts of what she teaches her son and students. Last year, she encouraged her students to learn about Hispanic traditions.
“We decorated our own pumpkins and the Catrinas for Día de los Muertos. We did something I never thought I’d get to do at work and share with my students because a lot of them had no idea what it was,” Alonzo said.
“Whenever there’s an event at the college, I tell them to go get some food and learn about this, so I get to do a mini lesson about what it actually means.”