Yesenia Garcia Ibarra teaches Spanish 1 and Spanish Language Arts for ninth grade. She joined the staff of Santa Fe High in 2022.

Ms. Garcia Ibarra enjoys her career. “I love getting the students connected to my language and culture,” she says, adding that this is the reason she wanted to teach Spanish. (She previously wanted to teach math but changed her mind due to the difficulty of teaching this subject.)

Ms. Garcia Ibarra makes everything in her class about Spanish to get the students to understand and be more involved in the language. She shows movies in Spanish, and all reading in this class is done in Spanish.

Ms. Garcia Ibarra is originally from Yuma, Colorado, a small town, and her parents are from Mexico. She attended MSU Denver, where she earned her Modern Language certificate with a concentration in Spanish, and also her translator certificate. She says she came to New Mexico for more and better opportunities.

In her free time, Ms. Garcia Ibarra enjoys reading (only in Spanish). She also enjoys green chile enchiladas and ceviche. She likes watching soccer, and her favorite team is the Mexico national team.