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Julia Mellenbruch
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Maestra de Español
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ver since she was a child living in a farming and ranching community near Cotulla in Southwest Texas, Julia (Klattenhoff) Mellenbruch ’35 wanted to be a teacher. Her school had several grades in one room, and often Julia would assist the teacher with the younger students. She “play taught” her younger sisters and a Sunday School class, and so there was no doubt that she would become an educator – and also no surprise that her specialty would be foreign languages.
As a child, Julia learned German speaking to her grandparents in Pflugerville. Her grandmother was part of the Pfluger family and her grandfather, who was born in Germany, wanted her to also learn German.
“I never translated, I just spoke the language,” she said. “So when I spoke German to my grandparents, I thought in German – and when I spoke English, I thought in English.”
Her method of linguistics continued as she absorbed the Spanish language and culture in South Texas. She studied Spanish in school, and decided to become a Spanish teacher long before she set foot on the TLU campus.
When she began her studies at Texas Lutheran, she found a school that was a very different place than it is today.
At the time there were only three buildings on campus – Old Main, Weeber Hall, and Emma Frey (only Emma is still standing today). It was a two-year school, struggling to survive in the worst of the Great Depression. Students paid $125 a semester for tuition, room and board, and all students were co-op, doing the chores for daily living on the campus.
Mellenbruch has fond memories of Texas Lutheran and of her professors. She studied Greek and Spanish with Dr. Hugo Gibson, and her religion class was one of world cultures and religions.
“TLU was a good school, and it got me off to a good start,” she said.
After Texas Lutheran, she completed her bachelor’s degree at The University of Texas. She moved back to South Texas, began teaching Spanish, and soon met and married her husband.
Julia began a new chapter in her life when she moved with her husband to Brownsville to help with the war effort.
“I was a censor,” she said. “Many Germans living in Mexico at the time owned businesses and were suspected of being Nazi sympathizers.”
The censors were given letters and newspapers in Spanish from the regular mail to read, looking for keys that the Germans’ anti-American sentiment was spreading to those living in Mexico and Central America. She said it was an interesting job, but it was especially interesting to her because it helped improve her understanding of the Mexican culture of the poor people who had contacts with relatives and friends in the U.S.
After the war, she taught Spanish, often to native Spanish-speaking students who came from families with little education. Because no materials were available for Spanish-speaking students, she created many of her own.
After 11 years in the Valley, they returned to Austin to continue their education at UT. The university hired Julia to operate a curriculum lab for student teachers, and she pursued her master’s degree.
“When I came to UT I told the secretary to the dean of the College of Education about my experiences in the Valley and that I wanted to write my master’s thesis on ‘Teaching Spanish to Spanish-speaking students in Texas high schools.” She said. “Go upstairs and visit with Dr. George Sanchez.”
Sanchez, a professor in the department of history and philosophy of education, accepted her as a student in the master’s program. Julia loved working with the renowned Dr. Sanchez. He was an author of materials on teaching about Mexican history and culture. Under his direction, she was able to take classes and learn about Spanish literature and read Latin American literature.
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| Julia Mellenbruch, right, and members of her Austin High School Spanish Club in 1965. |
After earning her master’s degree, Julia began teaching Spanish in a junior high school in Austin. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to spend a summer in Colombia, South America.
She continued for many years as a classroom teacher, mostly at the high school level, and spent a summer studying at the University of Madrid, Spain.
For two years the Mellenbruchs took a leave of absence and lived in Brazil where Julia taught English.
“While there I realized the importance of teachers understanding other cultures and incorporating that in their teaching methods.”
Returning to Austin, she continued to use her international experiences as she taught her students, still frequently creating her own materials to incorporate language and culture into the curriculum.
After over 20 years of experience in the classroom, Mellenbruch was named coordinator of secondary foreign languages for the Austin ISD. In this position, she visited every teacher every six weeks.
She said, “I would ask them to share how they did things. Even little things, and then I was able to share that information with other teachers.”
Mellenbruch used the information to co-author a classroom curriculum book “Handbook on Mexico for Elementary and Secondary Teachers,” as well as other articles and presentations to educational groups. Her knowledge and experience gave her an almost legendary status among classroom teachers.
In the early 1980s, Mellenbruch “retired,” but has continued to be active and involved.
Today, at age 90, Julia, who is a mother of two, grandmother of four, and great-grandmother of five, starts each morning with a workout at a local gym and then focuses on one of her multitude of projects and activities.
Each week she volunteers at the LBJ Library, where she has served for 23 years. For 50 years she has been a member of University Methodist Church, and is currently participating in the newly established Compeer Program, and keeps in touch with seniors in her Sunday School Class.
She is active in the Texas Retired Teachers Association and never hesitates to lobby the state legislature to promote her agenda, preserving the Teacher Retirement System of Texas as established in the Texas Constitution in 1937.
“It is very important to lobby for retired teachers to be treated fairly with Social Security benefits at the Federal level, too” she said. “I got an e-mail yesterday from [U.S. Rep.] Lloyd Doggett, who is working to help us.”
Julia’s lifelong love of language and cultures has prompted her to travel extensively. Not only does she speak fluent German, Spanish, Portuguese and English, she has also had some Russian, Greek, and Japanese. She has visited every continent except Antarctica.
“The only place in the world where I had trouble communicating was China,” she said. But, knowing Julia, Chinese may be next.
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