Overview
Dr. Hortencia Garcia Kayser (known as just "Dr. Hortencia Kayser" during her time at TCU) was a Latina speech pathology professor at TCU in the 1980s. Considering TCU’s current Hispanic/Latino faculty numbers are abysmal nowadays, Dr. Kayser was likely one the first few Latino/a professors on campus and even more likely to have been the only Latina at the time. Looking up her name in the TCU digital repository produces only a handful of exact matches, and none of them include her picture (or at least are not explictly labelled as such). Yet, these artifacts —a Daily Skiff article and a yearbook page— show that though she was not exactly celebrated for breaking such barriers, she was proactive in making sure her voice and expertise were heard and her students were supported.
TCU Involvement
Bilingual Education Advocate
TCU Daily Skiff interviewed Dr. Kayser (below)—then the coordinator of TCU’s bilingual pathology program— in 1987 about the state of bilingual education in Texas and her thoughts about a Spanish immersion program at TCU that would involve college students working with Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) students. Dr. Kayser noted that “bilingualism is desperately lacking in Texas” despite the efforts of immigrants (namely Spanish-speaking immigrants) being crucial to America’s foundation. Dr. Kayser even went so far as to say that “the United States has forgotten its heritage by trying to abolish bilingualism.” The article touches on Dr. Kayser’s pride in her own heritage but also notes that this is juxtaposed by a “sad[ness] that so many students, even at TCU, try to bury their roots.” This statement enforces the inference that Dr. Kayser was invested in OLAS’s mission and her students, giving them the tools to navigate TCU as students of color. Moreover, the passion in her voice implies that she actively fought for social justice in all aspects of her career. Having such a strong proponent against the overall “English Only” legislation debated at the time attached to TCU’s name likely resulted in tensions across faculty, similar to those felt in recent conversations around incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into the core curriculum.
Organization of Latino American Students (OLAS)
Two years later, Dr. Kayser was listed as one of two faculty advisors to the Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) in the 1989 yearbook (below). The group was given only one page in the yearbook despite bringing a number of “speakers, artists, and musical groups to TCU, attend[ing] state-wide conferences, [and being] active in TCU’s multiculturalism,” none of which were especially highlighted. This page includes two images, with six of the eight people being women and at least five of those women being of color. OLAS’s member list is also provided, with roughly ten of sixteen members being women. This likely means that Dr. Kayser was seen as a mentor by other Latinas on campus. As students of color know, having a professor who looks like you and to whom you can relate is often important in feeling like you have a place on campus, and the fact that Dr. Kayser was not only someone who looked like these women but was also someone who volunteered her time to support them in their cultural endeavors might have been a game changer. Of course, the brief yearbook description does not go into Dr. Kayser’s role as advisor, so there is a chance that she was more of a background figure, but her previously displayed passion about the merits of bilingual education and grounding oneself in your culture lends belief to believing the former option as the greater possibility.
Connecting to Latina Feminisms
When analyzing Dr. Kayser’s work in conjunction with our discussions on Latina feminisms, she might best be understood when examining the first few chapters of Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands. Anzaldua’s reflections on the “emotional residue” of abstract “borderlands” echos Dr. Kayser’s observations on students straying from their cultural and/or ancestral origins. Similarly, we can say these “borderlands” also consist of the limited brave spaces people of color have on predominately white campuses, inclusive of relationship to the school, because they are socially constructed realities that have been maintained by the dominant groups. Anzaldua then examines different movements and rebellions that said social realities created the need for, not unlike Dr. Kayser’s push for bilingual education in order to reroot the Latino culture or her support for OLAS bringing the culture to campus. While Dr. Kayser, at least not in these excerpts, does not make direct cultural ties like Anzaldua does (e.g. explaning different figures), she does assume Anzaldua’s urgency to fall back on them in order to create and maintain a unique identity.
Kayser's Impact and TCU
If you google “Hortencia Kayser,” you will see links to different profiles from a number of universities she worked at since her time at TCU. However, at least at the time of writing, none of these links actually work, though there is an article about her from 2018 for her work at Mississipi University. From follow-up searches in the TCU archives, it does not seem like Dr. Kayser taught at TCU for long after the 1989 yearbook: she is not in subsequent yearbooks, and OLAS makes limited appearances. If not for the Daily Skiff article, none of her words would be engrained in TCU’s past, of which I would hope she would see herself an important part of as a vocal and ardent woman of color.
Unfortunately, this is a pattern with faculty of color at TCU, even today. Though there are a few tenured faculty of color, a number of other professors of color are more in temporary positions, such as one-year lecturers. Thus, while these professors can inspire their students more in the one or two semesters they are here than the many white professors who have made a career out of TCU, their names will probably slowly disappear from TCU’s history books. TCU needs to be better about supporting its faculty and staff of color if it wants to live up to its advertised diversity agenda and create a brave space for them to speak and be remembered for their own truth on their own terms.
Angelica Hernandez
Comments