Oxy's longtime resident senior instructor of Spanish welcomed every new generation of students—and found that teaching itself is a lifelong education
It may come as a surprise to learn that Alicia González is not a native speaker of Spanish—the language she has taught to thousands of students over the last 25 years at Occidental. She majored in international studies and Spanish at Stanford before pursuing graduate work in linguistics at UCLA.
“I love studying languages,” says the seventh-generation Angeleno. “I’m the only one in my family who speaks Spanish after all these generations. I love the Spanish language and all the historical, cultural, literary, artistic, culinary, and musical richness that goes with it.”
Throughout her career, González taught primarily first- and second-year Spanish. Even so, she says, the courses never became routine. “Students change, and times change. The material you focus on changes over time. There’s a second-year course that I have probably taught more often than anyone at Oxy, and I crafted a lot of it around my own interests, with a lot of art and some poetry. What the students are interested in has changed dramatically because of what’s happening in the world.” A decade ago, students gravitated to Velázquez and connected with the more optimistic poetry of the period, she says. Today, they’re captivated by Goya’s dark paintings and identify more with existential modernist verse.
González was in her 40s when she started teaching at Oxy. “I was probably younger than most of my students’ parents,” she says. “Now I’m closer in age to their grandparents. You get older every year, and your students don’t. It forces you to stay current.” Take tattoos. “Twenty years ago, it was so unusual to see an undergraduate at Oxy with a tattoo,” she says. “Now it’s like, ‘Oh, hey, what a nice tat.’ Or, ‘I like that hair color. Purple looks good on you.’”
Before coming to Occidental, she was teaching Spanish at Marlborough School—far away from her home in Malibu. She had recently divorced, was raising a young son, and needed a more flexible work schedule. A graduate school classmate from UCLA, Anne Hills, was leaving a teaching position at Oxy and encouraged González to apply. “At first it was a good job,” González says, “but then it became a career.”
Over time, she says, Oxy became “my home away from home.” She points to the lunchtime gatherings outside the fourth-floor offices in Johnson Hall, where language faculty met three days a week. Those friendships extended beyond campus with museum visits, outings to the Huntington, and evenings at the Hollywood Bowl. Her colleagues were especially accommodating of her schedule as a single mother.
Although her son, Alonso Olvera-González ’23, grew up on Occidental’s campus—attending the Childhood Development Center for two years and often accompanying his mother to work—he long insisted he would never attend Oxy. After a professional ballet career was cut short by a series of foot and ankle surgeries, he enrolled at Santa Monica College with plans to transfer to a UC campus. When the pandemic forced classes online, Alonso decided that Occidental’s small classes and close faculty relationships, combined with his familiarity with the campus, would offer a better experience. “That knocked me over with a feather,” González recalls with a smile. “He only spent two and a half years here, but he received an incredible education.”
Looking back over the last quarter-century, González sees her time at the College framed by moments that reshaped the world at large. She arrived just weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which transformed campus life in unexpected ways. When she brought her son to preschool the next morning, she recalls, “They were doing a duck-and-cover drill. He’s 3 and his world changed overnight. And what do you say to 20-year-olds during that?” More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of artificial intelligence have each altered the course of higher education. “Those are pretty big changes in 25 years,” she says.
Over the years, González says, “I’ve had students who were accepted to top Ivy League schools and chose Oxy instead. They were brilliant students and have gone on to incredible careers. I love that they’re from all over the country and around the world and have interesting backgrounds.” Teaching first-year language courses gave her a window into her students’ lives, as vocabulary lessons about family, daily routines, and hometowns naturally helped her get to know them better.
“Professor González was an amazing professor, and I loved having her my freshman year,” says Kiera Ashcraft ’27, a media arts and culture major from Los Angeles. “On Admitted Students Day back in 2023, I actually sat in on her class. She was one of the reasons I chose Oxy, because she was so welcoming. I have visited her office hours periodically, and she always had great advice and was a joy to be around.”
After Bad Bunny was announced as this year’s Super Bowl halftime performer, it only made sense for González and her students to hold a watch party in the foyer and atrium of the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs inside Johnson Hall. “It was really fun,” González says. “When we have any downtime in the classroom, we’ll put on some music, and I’ll play whatever the students want to listen to, as long as the lyrics are in Spanish.”
González lives less than 10 miles from where she grew up. Regardless of where her work took her, Malibu was always home. “I have told people many times that no one in their right mind would take a job at Oxy and then decide that they’re going to live 37 miles away,” she notes with a laugh. “But I already owned a home in a community and a neighborhood that I love.”
How is she going to spend her retirement? “Oh my gosh,” she replies, “how am I not? I’ve already signed up to take a poetry class. The class is in English, but I’ll write in both English and Spanish. I am a bit of a social activist. I will continue to be very active in social justice and environmental issues. I’m big on gun violence prevention, too. So, activism, volunteerism, a lot more hikes, long beach walks, and keeping a life of the mind. I’ve been doing those things all along, but now I’ll have more time for them.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to attend what I think people would consider some of the top California schools—Stanford and UCLA,” González says. “I consider Oxy on par with any college in the country. It’s been a wonderful home to me—small and intimate. I think it’s still a bit of sleeper school. People who appreciate it really get it.”
“I am going to miss having an excuse to spend time with my mother at Oxy, my second home.”
ྱԲ!” The Otis elevator settles itself and opens its doors to the fourth floor of Johnson Hall. I turn the corner to the sounds of laughter and conversations in different languages from across the globe. Whether I’m stepping off that elevator as a 5-year-old in the pre-renovation Johnson or as a graduating senior on my last day at Oxy, I am home. If you’ve ever taken a foreign language class at Oxy, then you know there’s a special feeling to Johnson’s fourth floor that can’t be found elsewhere on campus.
Admittedly, I am biased since this is where my mother, Profa González, had her office for the last 25 years, but the openness, inclusivity, and joy that are palpable on that floor are alluring, and a highlight of my Oxy story. I also know for a fact that my mother has continually been instrumental in that magical fourth-floor ambience, as evidenced by her extensive career at Oxy, and the lifelong friendships she’s established with other faculty members who I consider my “tíos y tías.” In fact, every Spanish language professor attended my graduation in full regalia, and I chose to celebrate that occasion afterward on the fourth floor instead of with my classmates.
I am going to miss having an excuse to spend time with my mother at Oxy, my second home, and I am certain that the faculty, staff, and students are going to miss Profa González’s presence on campus. It was a privilege to see all of the effort she put into her work: late nights grading papers, preparing guacamole early in the morning as part of a lesson, sharing stories over lunch with colleagues. If it wasn’t for my mother’s time at Oxy, I never would’ve had the fortune of earning both my preschool and college degrees from such an incredible institution, nor gained another place in Los Angeles to call “home” for 25 years.
Alonso Olvera-González ’23 majored in psychology at Occidental, graduating summa cum laude with departmental honors and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is currently pursuing opportunities in healthcare-related fields.
