Juanita Garciagodoy

from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base

Juanita’s mother is from MN and she went to Macalester and met Juanita’s father (from Guadalajara) on a college trip to Mexico. Juanita was born and raised amongst other children of mixed heritage in Mexico City. She also attended Macalester College. After graduating with a double major in Spanish and Religion, Juanita continued her studies at Harvard, where she received her Masters in Religious Studies.

Juanita married to Mexico, where she married her husband. When Juanita was sixteen and was attending high school, she and her husband-to-be were cast as lovers in a play at the English Language Community Theater. Although he was ten years older than she, they struck up a lasting friendship. Years later, only after Juanita returned from college did their friendship turn into a romance.

Her husband, a full-time fiction writer wanted to move to the United States since his writes in English. Juanita, her husband, and two children from his first marriage moved to Minnesota. Shortly thereafter the head of the Spanish Department at Macalester asked Juanita to teach. She has been working part-time ever since the early 1980s.

Before teaching at Macalester Juanita had two teaching positions in Mexico, one of which was at the University of the Americas in Mexico City. She loved the students from both the Mexican and American institutions in which she worked, however, there were differences between the students. She noticed that Mexican students were more conventional in their gender roles and career expectations. Often parents assume their kids will follow in their footsteps. In the states however, “parents have open ambitions for their children”, making them “more intellectually adventurous.”

"I’m happy here at Macalester,” Professor Garciagodoy says. Her role here is quite unique. “Here I’m basically a professional Mexican.” As a member of the Mac community, Juanita has matured and deepened her appreciation for both her Mexican and American heritage.

E-mail: garciagodoy@macalester.edu

Juanita was interviewed by Clara Weinstock in October 2003.