Susan Iniguez

Susan Iniguez taught bilingual education in the Roosevelt School District, primarily at Sunland Elementary and John R. Davis. She retired in 2016 and is now a part-time educational consultant at Irene Lopez School.

Susan was born in 1959, in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the second oldest of six children. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a student. father then graduated from college and became a successful businessman. The family lived in Maryland until Susan was six, and then moved to Northern Virginia. In 1973, Susan’s father’s company transferred him to Phoenix, AZ.

[Insert clip: 7:00, Early Life in Baltimore]

The family moved to North Phoenix, and Susan attended Thunderbird High School. After graduation, she attended Northern Arizona University. As a student, her mother referred to her as an “overachiever,” but it took her a while to find her passion in college, slowly realizing she wanted to be teacher. She got her degree in education and minored in Spanish. After graduating, in 1981, Susan found a job in the Roosevelt School District as a bilingual teacher. Her first teaching job was at Sunland elementary. She was later moved to John R. Davis school and spent 16 years at this school.

Clip [10:35 New Schools]

At that time, in 1981, South Phoenix was mainly fields and farms, and cars drove on unpaved dirt roads. Although the southside was part of a big city, it continued to be rural. Susan used to walk or drive by the flower gardens on Baseline Road on her way to work, enjoying the smells and the beauty of the flowers. One of her favorite places to visit was Ponchos, a taco stand on Central that is still in operation today. She loved the feeling that South Phoenix was a small town where everyone knew each other.

[Insert clip: 9:52 , Farm fields of South Phoenix]

One of the contributing factors to the expansion was affordable housing. Alongside Phoenix, Laveen (to the west) was expanding as well during this time. New roads and new schools were built to support the growing community.

Clip: [16:18 The Growth Of Davis]

In the early 21st century, the RSD superintendent filed a complaint against the state of Arizona over inequitable funding to the South Phoenix area. Susan was assigned to work on behalf of the relevant complaints filed by parents and community members. Primarily, the community didn’t feel like English language learners were receiving equitable access to education. Susan worked with the district to develop, implement, and monitor the plan. A grant was presented for reading to work with K-3. In 2005, Susan became the director of curriculum instruction, she worked in this role for 11 years.

Clips [23:10, Irene Lopez] Susan Iniguez Full Interview 3.25.24.mp4 Susan Iniguez Full Interview 3.25.24.mp4 7 [39:15, Beginning of college memories]

[Insert clip: 26:54, Favorite Memories]

Susan Iniguez grew up in South Phoenix and watched it grow and change over the years. While she was the Director of Inner curriculum Construction she was dealing with Civil Rights and the bilingual education for the Mexican-American Students in the South Phoenix area. Her story was a first hand experience of how South Phoenix became what it is today. She shared how the housing was taking over all the agricultural land and the dirt roads were becoming paved. While she was teaching she watched South Phoenix turn into a city and how everything changed. She is retired and still living in South Phoenix and her legacy still lives on with what she has to share and what she impacted.

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Narrator	Susan Iniguez
Birthdate	1959
Place of Origin	Baltimore, MD
Place of Residence	South Phoenix, AZ
Years Active	1981-
Occupation	Teacher, Educational Consultant
Recording Date	March 25, 2024
Recording Location	South Mountain Community College
Recording Duration	53:50
Interview Conducted by	Faculty Researcher Summer Cherland
Story Written by	Student Researchers Stryder Salas, Stephen Hernandez, Mabel Gomez
Metadata