Lopez reaches goal of becoming a teacher It was a Friday afternoon when Spanish teacher Julio Lopez left his town in Michoacan, Mexico, to come to the United States. Arriving in his new country that same weekend, Lopez took Monday off and Tuesday his family was already signing him up for Fremont Middle School. The start may have seemed sudden but school has always been a top priority in his family.
Since his grandmother was born here, Lopez had the opportunity to come to the U.S. legally.
As soon as he came here, school was the first thing on his mind. Soon after his arrival, the school year ended and Lopez began working at the age of 14 picking tomatoes.
September soon came and it was time for him to enroll at Franklin High School. Lopez had different ideas.
“I didn’t want to go back to school. I was making money and putting it into pesos, so I thought, why should I go back to school?”
His family, however, had their mind set on him getting his education.
“My uncle told me I had to go back to school. He said that he had a lot of respect for people that worked in fields, but they don’t get paid a lot. They told me you are young you need to learn the language. I knew in the back of my mind I needed to learn the language, it was my future.” With the wise words of his uncle, he went back to school thinking of his future.
Lopez’s father and grandfather have always had strong beliefs about education. He said that sometimes in small towns where the father was the head of the family and the family was large, they would take their sons out of school to work.
“My dad and grandpa didn’t do that. Those two are my heroes.”
In 1996, the year of Lopez’ graduation, his high school counselor pulled him into his office and asked him what he wanted to do in the future since there were some scholarships available. He gave him a week to decide.
“I told him I wanted to have a career teaching or being a news reporter.”
The following week, Lopez went back to his counselor and told him that he wanted to be a teacher.
“I chose this because I think teachers are the ones that can change a student’s life. If it wasn’t for those teachers at Franklin who taught me English, I wouldn’t be here. I admire this profession.”
One of his inspirations to pursue a teaching career was a teacher he had back in Mexico, Carmen, who would walk 10 miles every day to teach them.
“I have a lot of admiration for her. She walked 10 miles to teach, I have a lot of respect for her.”
Sophomore Selena Magallanes, Spanish 3-4 Honors student, is one of many that Lopez has made an impact on.
“He’s a good teacher. He inspires me to try harder in Spanish because he’s fluent and I want to do that too.”
