A Tapestry of Teaching: Documentarian, Educator to Visit SUU

Published: March 31, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Award-winning documentarian artist, educator and humanitarian Rosa Ramirez Guerrero will visit Southern Utah University this week to progress multi-cultural understanding through her work with school children in music and dance education.

On Tuesday, April 1, at 11:30 a.m. Guerrero will discuss “Teaching about Life through Dance” as part of SUU’s Spring Convocation series in the SUU Auditorium. A native El Pasoan, Guerrero recognizes the role of Mexican-American music and dance in her life. In her lecture, she will discuss the belief that children can learn language through movement, using her public school teaching experience, as well as her work with children in bilingual classes and folkloric dance classes, to explain the role of dance and music in education.

Guerrero developed the first intercultural programs within the El Paso Public schools in 1970 where she taught for 20 years. She was awarded a Life Membership with the Texas PTA and was the first Hispanic woman in El Paso to have a school, Rosa Guerrero Elementary, named in her honor.

Ms. Guerrero founded and became the artistic director of the International Folklorico Dance Group. Her film “Tapestry,” on creating cultural harmony and understanding, was honored with a national award for documentary filmmaking.

On Wednesday, April 2, at 7 p.m., a viewing of her follow-up documentary, Tapestry II, will be open to the public in room 101 of the SUU’s Sorenson Physical Education Building. Guerrero will be present to introduce the film and to answer questions after the viewing.

Guerrero has received many honors, including Outstanding Woman in the Arts (Women’s Political Caucus); Outstanding Woman Artist in El Paso (the Mexican American National Association); one of the Outstanding Hispanics in the Southwest (Adolph Coors, Co.); and Outstanding Hispanic of El Paso (the University of Texas at El Paso). Among her other awards are the Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation Award; the LULAC Arts and Humanities Award; the Human Relations Award (Texas State Teachers Association); and the Good Samaritan Award (Catholic Media Ministries of El Paso). Ms. Guerrero also received the Setoma Service to Mankind Award, the Arts Alliance Individual Dance Award, and the Adelante Mujer Hispana V Award for her continuous support of the advancement of Hispanic women.

She has been called “a tapestry of many cultures whose mission is to share this tapestry of cultural diversity, and how it is woven, with all people.” Ms. Guerrero earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso and was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 1997.

For more information about Southern Utah University’s Convocation series and a complete listing of presentations for Spring Semester, please visit www.suu.edu/convocations.

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