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Mr. Harold Holmdohl 1958 – 1977
Amparo Valencia, a faculty member of the American School for nearly 40 years, recalls the first time she met the man who would be the director of the school for twenty years. In formal but broken Spanish, Harold Holmdohl asked Miss Valencia what her name was. When she replied, he broke spontaneously into a rendition of the song “Valencia”. It is rare to encounter any educational figure who has been so universally respected by staff and students alike. He knew each of his employees personally and knew how to best utilize their talents in the pursuit of quality education for the students. A charismatic, impeccably dressed man with his bow ties and pipe, he was seen as a father figure by all. Harold Holmdohl had previously been director of the American School of Quito, Ecuador. His arrival at the American School Foundation of Guadalajara (ASFG) brought an end to the turbulence of previous months and restored stability and identity to the school.
One of the traditions that grew from his tenure at the school began one year after his arrival. Miss Valencia organized a mariachi serenade for Mr. Holmdohl on his birthday, January 12. Every year after that staff members would accompany the mariachis to Mr. Holmdohl’s home to have coffee and cookies before returning to work.
One of the major changes that Mr. Holmdohl oversaw was the move to the Colomos campus, a location considered to be outside of Guadalajara proper in those days. The ground breaking for the new campus took place on June 18, 1959 and classes began at the new location in September 1960. The new facility, surrounded by cornfields, had not yet been painted by the time students were welcomed to class. The new campus was larger than the rented house at Avenida Vallarta 1515, but not by much. Indeed, the lack of space at the new campus became an almost immediate concern. Enrollment in the primary grades was growing, but the high school population was small (less than 35) and transient, being made up almost entirely of students from the US. Each year an average of only four seniors graduated. Consequently it became difficult to offer a consistent high school program. For these reasons Mr. Holmdohl proposed the elimination of grades ten through twelve in order “to improve physical and therefore pedagogical conditions in the American School until such time as expansion of the present plant is possible and the demand for secondary education is more evident than it is at present.” The proposal was not accepted and the school sought other means to expand facilities and available classroom space. Mr. Holmdohl spent the next years expanding the school and purchasing necessary equipment. At this time the school consisted of two single-storey buildings housing 21 classrooms. The area that is now elementary was open land back then. The only tree that has survived is the guamuchil that currently stands by the basketball courts.
Mexico elected Adolfo López Mateos as president in 1958, the same year that Harold Holmdohl took over the American School. López Mateos bought out Canadian and US ownership of the electric companies as well as expanding medical care and old age pensions. In an attempt to improve education, he built more schools and introduced free textbooks. The economy was prosperous, though tensions arose as Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959. Since Castro had links with Mexico and enjoyed support among the general population, López Mateos chose a policy of non-intervention in Cuba’s affairs, refusing to cut diplomatic ties or impose sanctions. After the Cuban missile crisis, anti-US feeling grew in Mexico, but relations were improved when President Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline visited in June 1962.
Mr. Holmdohl surrounded himself with respected and admired teachers such as Ms Martínez, principal of junior high and high school, Dr. Alberto Ladrón de Guevara, principal of preparatoria, Dr. Bates, head of the Commercial program, and Jean Zazueta, primary director. Amparo Valencia was affectionately known as La Missita; Daphne Domínguez, a former student and staff member, fondly refers to her as “an institution at the school”. Of Ms Zazueta she says “She gave all her life to the school. She was a great woman and all the English I speak I owe to her.” Dr. Alicia Durand, who attended the school from 1968-1972, remembers Joaquin González, better known as El Poli. He always welcomed the children as they entered school and tried to keep the campus secure – not an easy job when the front wall was only one meter high.
Students in the Commercial program studied in both English and Spanish for three years after secundaria, with an extra year of special English. Upon graduation they were qualified to work as bilingual secretaries, which Daphne Domínguez recalls meant they could find work easily in almost any company. Bilingualism was a useful skill in Mexico, even at that time, as by 1965 US holdings in Mexico totaled more than one billion dollars.
In 1965 ASFG was accredited by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for the first time. Later it was also incorporated by the Department of Public Education of Jalisco and the University of Guadalajara. The school continued to have separate American and Mexican programs taught in separate classrooms, meaning students from the two programs did not get to know each other as well as they do today. Students could take courses in either program provided their language ability and schedules permitted. Points of interaction between the two programs were also afforded during art class, PE, and student council, as well as through the wide variety of extra-curricular activities that served to unite the school. Apart from the traditional celebrations such as the Halloween parade and Christmas parties, there was also Valentine’s Day Queen, Mr. and Miss High School, photography club and yearbook, bazaars, and Pep Club to cheer for the school’s sports teams. Sporting events included ice-skating, tennis, volleyball, soccer, and the “Wildcats” baseball team. Under the leadership of Profe Salazar, the sports teams achieved a high level of success, despite having no gym, no pool, and only a dirt soccer field. The ASFG volleyball team won all ASOMEX tournaments from 1974-1978, with the soccer team winning ASOMEX in 1978.
The late 1960s were a time of long hair, bell-bottoms, rock and roll music, and protests against the Vietnam War. By 1969 the uniform policy was no longer enforced at ASFG. It was a difficult time to be connected with the United States since the school was seen as a symbol of American capitalism despite the fact that opposition to the war was very strong among ASFG students. Student protests on a national level were to lead to one of the darkest days in Mexican history. With the increase of a literate middle class and access to television, Mexican citizens were able to witness the student protests that were becoming more common around the world from Tokyo to Prague, Berlin to Paris, and in the US. In the summer of 1968, a few months before the Olympic Games were to be held in Mexico City, student unrest developed into confrontations with the military. On October 2, some 10,000 people attended a rally in Tlaltelolco at which security forces massacred many hundreds as they fired indiscriminately into the crowd of students, parents, and children.
By the mid-70s the national economy was rapidly deteriorating. In the summer of 1976, rumors of a devaluation caused some $6 billion USD to flee the country. Inevitably perhaps, in September 1976 the government devalued the peso by 60%, followed by a further 40% devaluation the following month. Such a vast devaluation was devastating for a school that relied on tuition for its income. The school had difficulty meeting its payroll and when paychecks were distributed, some of the staff were asked not to cash them immediately. Fortunately the school was able to survive the economic downturn, as it would have to do several times more in the decades to follow. In 1977, Mr. Holmdohl retired after nearly 20 years of service and returned to the United States. In later years the upper school library was officially named the Holmdohl Media Center in recognition of his many years of dedicated service to the school.
Life in Mexico at the Time
1958 Many strikes & demonstrations by workers demanding an increase in wages
1959 Guadalajara’s Estadio Jalisco built
1964 Movie “Night of the Iguana” filmed in Puerto Vallarta
1968 Students massacred at Tlaltelolco
1969 Guadalajara’s first mall opens, Plaza del Sol
Motorola electronics factory opens in Zapopan
1974 Huge offshore oil reserves discovered
1976 Peso devaluated by 60%
1970 Mexico’s population: 48 million
1960 Guadalajara covers 9,500 hectares, population: 736,000 |
World Events of 1958-1977
1959 Buddy Holly dies in a plane crash
1961 Berlin Wall built
1962 Nelson Mandela imprisoned
1963 John F. Kennedy assassinated
The Beatles release their first album
1965 Vietnam War escalates
1967 Che Guevara killed in Bolivia
1968 Martin Luther King assassinated
1969 Apollo 11 lands the first men on the moon
Woodstock music festival
1972 Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympic Games
1973 Watergate scandal
1977 The movie “Saturday Night Fever” popularizes disco music |
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