Issue 28

Faculty Spotlight

My friend Jorge Zamora by Lorum H Stratton

Dr. Jorge Zamora

I first remember meeting Jorge Zamora in Fall of 1995, soon after he began his graduate work in our department. Through another colleague, Dr. Roberto Bravo, we became friends. He was an older graduate student and even from the beginning, he was more a colleague than a student.

Our friendship was mainly limited to various meetings with the three of us as we would discuss a number of topics. Some were centered on the best soccer team in Mexico. Jorge was a big fan of Universidad based in Mexico City. Roberto was a huge fan of Guadalajara, his hometown. I was a fan of América, more for the name than anything else. The three teams were the biggest names in Mexican soccer, and intense rivals. I also listened and enjoyed Jorge and Roberto discussing the cultural and historical significance of Mexico City or Guadalajara and which city had the most to offer. A consensus was never reached. We also talked about the highly successful Mexico Field Course, and Jorge would say that at some point he would love to be able to take students to Mexico.

Jorge was such an upbeat, friendly, and cheerful person that he was considered a friend by all who met him. I don´t remember a lot about his graduate studies. I do remember that he was an excellent teacher, and even as a graduate student, he had the opportunity to teach an upper-level cultural class and an upper-level business Spanish course. The teaching of the business Spanish course was especially important as will be seen.

He finished his graduate studies in 1999, and immediately was hired as a Spanish instructor at South Plains College. I am sure they were thrilled to get someone of his caliber and teaching expertise.

We now fast forward one year. Over the years, the Business Spanish course became more and more popular to the point that in 2000 the Spanish section was given permission to conduct a tenure-track search for a professor to teach and develop the Business Spanish curriculum. I was a member of that search committee. After an exhaustive search, we narrowed the field to three candidates, the best of whom I would classify as mediocre plus. At a depressing meeting to decide if we had a viable candidate, I told the committee that I knew of a professor who was head and shoulders above all the other candidates and would be an ideal fit for our department. They were rather upset and asked why I had not said anything before. I responded that if I had said anything earlier, they would not have listened to me as the person was one of own PhDs, and there was the “unwritten law” that you do not hire your own graduates. They asked who, and I said: Jorge Zamora. I told them that not only could he help us with the Business Spanish, he would be an ideal colleague for the Mexico Field Course. After a short discussion, we all agreed that he could be the perfect person for the position. I was given permission to contact him.

I called Jorge and after exchanging pleasantries, I asked him if he would be interested in teaching Business Spanish at Texas Tech. Jorge, thinking that I was offering him a one-year visiting appointment, thanked me and declined the offer, saying that he was very happy at South Plains. Finally, in a second call, I was able to convey to him that this was a tenure-track permanent position. After a one-day visit, we offered and Jorge accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Spanish to begin the Fall Semester of 2001. There was no question. This was a home run hire.

Dr. Jorge Zamora

Jorge very soon became such an integral part of the Spanish and CMLL faculty. His personality, his cheerfulness, his optimism, and his entire persona added class, dignity, integrity, and humor to the department. During his first year, he was given the opportunity to participate in the Mexico Field Course, in which he accompanied me during the summer of 2002. He told me that the day we took our tour of Mexico City, he remembers looking out at the Zócalo, the main plaza of Mexico City. As he absorbed this view, he rediscovered and connected, in a totally new way, his love for his native country and culture which he subsequently shared with many students. He later participated in a number of additional Mexico Field Course programs. I would like to quote two of the people with whom he associated closely on these programs.

Mexico Field Trip Course

Dr. Steve Corbett (Spanish professor and director of the Mexico Field Course):

“From about 2005 to 2017 we served together as the directors of this fine study abroad program. Jorge's cheerful, outgoing personality and keen, personal knowledge of the Mexican culture and people endeared him to the students of the program. He would go far beyond the call of duty to see that students had an enjoyable experience in Mexico. I found that recruiting students to participate in the MFC was much easier when they heard that Jorge was going to be one of the directors. I too enjoyed working with such a good natured, friendly colleague as we recruited students and organized the program on campus and then directed it in Mexico. I consider Jorge both a great former colleague and a good friend.”

Lourdes Quilantán (our do-it-all colleague from San Luis Potosí)

“He was always cheerful and willing to share Mexican culture with the students. He would take them to the wrestling arena, to church, to have breakfast in a typical restaurant and then go to a symphonic orchestra concert. He would convince them to take a salsa dancing class. He made a great team with Dr. Stratton or Dr. Corbett. His optimistic personality and extensive knowledge of history and culture combined with his Mexican background, conjugated to immerse even the most skeptical student in a unique experience. My admiration and gratitude to Dr. Jorge Zamora for having had the pleasure to work with him.”

The limitations of space do not allow me to give recognition for the millennia of students in whose lives he had a great impact, even to the total changing of their lives for the good.

I have had the opportunity to spend some time with him in April and May of 2023. As we talked and reminisced of the good times (with time they became even better), I asked him how he would like to be remembered. He thought for a minute and responded (I paraphrase slightly).

“I would like to be remembered as an optimist with a positive attitude, one who is faithful and true, a cheerful person with a good sense of humor. I would say to others: know yourself, connect to your culture. All this I have tried to do with my colleagues and students. If I could summarize in one sentence my philosophy of life, it comes from the title of the song: --Let´s face the music and dance-.”

Thank you, Jorge, for allowing me and so many others to participate with you in “the dance.”

Lorum Stratton

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