Nieto brings touch of Latino culture to her classroom in Villa Grove

By Tony Hooker
Sometimes, you just know.
And so it is with Villa Grove High School’s new Spanish teacher, Liz Nieto.
“It’s actually in my yearbook when I graduated that I’ve known my whole life,” Nieto remembered.
With both parents being of Mexican descent, it’s not surprising that she was raised in a bilingual family, but what might be unusual is that even though she was born in the US, she still considers Spanish to be her native language.
She feels that this can be an advantage for teaching the type of Spanish she wishes to teach.
“I want to teach them conversational Spanish,” she noted. “When I was in high school, I actually failed my first semester and it was things that I was never taught like the grammar stuff. I always knew that if I was ever a teacher, I wanted to teach the kids how to have an actual conversation.”

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LIZ NIETO, RIGHT, sits with students from her Villa Grove Spanish Club during the Nov. 25 Christmas Tree Lighting. They sold Jarritos soft drinks and tamales during the event.