Taos Woman/education
Tina Larkin
Carla Chávez teaching a class at Taos High School.
By Teresa Dovalpage
C
A passion for education
arla Chávez manages to fit in one day what would likely takes others 48 hours to accomplish. Chávez teaches six science classes at Taos High School and another one through UNM-Taos. She served as a board member in the Bridges Project for Education for several years and currently volunteers as an advisor in different organizations. She also sings in the choir at Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. How does she manage to accomplish all that? “I have been teaching for 10 years and learned to be very efficient with my time,” she said.
La familia Her family, los Martínez, is originally from Taos. Chávez graduated from Taos High School and
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Carla Chávez
attended Occidental College in California, where she majored in environmental biology. She moved to Boston for five years while her husband, David Chávez, was in graduate school. Then they moved back to Taos. “David and I believe in giving back to our community,” she said. “We want to help the Taos youth succeed in life.” Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist David Chávez is currently the Taos School Board president. “He is an amazing man and has the same passion for education that I do,” she said. “I couldn’t do all the things I now do without his help and support.” Carla and David Chávez have three children. Aurelia is a freshman at Taos High School, Natalia is a seventh-grader in Taos Middle School and Sebastian, el bebe, is in kindergarten at Ranchos de Taos Elementary School.
“My kids and I share different interests,” she said. “Because they all have different talents. Natalia and I are crochet buddies while Aurelia and I love to talk about books. Sebastian and I work together on projects about space when we have time at home. And we all cook together because the girls and Sebastian love to be in the kitchen.” “We can always count on her,” Aurelia said. “If we forget something when we go to school, she will bring it to us, no big deal.” “She is a good mom,” Natalia added, shyly. “Very, very good.”
Passion for the classroom Education runs in Chávez’ family. Her grandparents on both sides were educators and one of her sisters, Renetta Mondragón, is a first-grade teacher at Ranchos EleChávez continues on page 52 mentary.
taos woman/taosnews.com/woman
2014