Valentín Gómez Farías Adventist School

The Valentín Gómez Farías Adventist School belongs to the Central Veracruz Mission, one of the fields of the Interoceanic Mexican Union.

The story of the school begins when members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the city of Veracruz felt the need to put Christian education into practice. At about that time, Mrs. Juanita Miranda, a concert performer from the radio station XEU in this city, began to take an interest in the activities of the Central Adventist Church, especially those related to music. Before that, in 1958, she had promised to donate her house so that a Christian school could be established there and so that Adventist children and youth could develop their physical, mental, and spiritual abilities. A year later, sadly, she died.

Establishment of the Institution

In 1959, Pastor Vicente Limón, president of the Interoceanic Mission, and Pastor Isaac Vallejo, pastor of the Díaz Aragón Central Adventist Church, together took the legal steps necessary to allow the house given by Mrs. Miranda to begin functioning as a school. Later, in 1961, the school unofficially began operation at the primary level under the name of its benefactor, Juanita Miranda. The school was located at 1051 Valentín Gómez Farías Street in the colony of Ricardo Flores Magón.

Angelita Martínez Mier y Terán was its first principal, and she worked with teachers Hilda Arenas de Gómez and Hortensia de García who began working without pay. Adventist church members gave donations to help the school function. In the beginning, the school only had the first through third grades, and arrangements and contracts were made with other schools so that students could finish their primary school education. Soon, it was decided to take steps to incorporate the school and make it possible for it to receive accreditation. The official semester tests were acquired, and free textbooks, along with the official current curriculum, were given to the school by Professor Violeta Sordo from the Secretariat of Public Education.

In 1970, teachers Manuel Ramos and Silvia de Ramos set the school up with all six grades of elementary education with Silvia acting as principal. Official state accreditation provided by the Office of the Secretariat of Public Education was given on June 7, 1971, when the principal was Teodora Balcázar de Quiroz. She was assisted by Rubén Chavira Ruiz, Lidia Martínez Martínez, and Humberto Espinoza Mejía.¹

In 1977, the secondary education level was added, with Jorge Bobadilla as principal and with Manuel and Siilvia Ramos as teachers. Accreditation was given for this level on June 10, 1980, when Dr. Silvia Ruth Martínez de Montes was the principal. At this time, the school took the name of Valentín Gómez Farías.

Under the direction of Silvia Ruth Martínez de Montes, their principal, the preparatory level was incorporated on August 3, 1984, when the president of the Interoceanic Mexican Conference was Pastor Efraín Piedra González and the pastor of the Veracruz District was Daniel Loredo Cruz. The preparatory level also received the name Valentín Gómez Farías and was located at 445 Díaz Aragón Street in the colony of Ricardo Flores Magón.

The last level of education that was established at the school was the preschool level. It started unofficially, with Claudia León Costeño as teacher, on September 2, 1988. Later, teacher Teresa Medrano García began to make the arrangements for accreditation. The school acquired this official accreditation on August 22, 1991. In this way, the school attained its three levels: preschool, elementary, and secondary (including the preparatory level).²

History

When Ederseín Alvarez López was the principal of the school, a request was sent to the Education Department of the state to change the name of the elementary school for fiscal reasons. On August 19, 1986, the elementary school was no longer called Juanita Miranda and became the Valentín Gómez Farías School. In this way, all four levels were made official.

In 1971, the primary level, and in 1980, the secondary level were incorporated under the legal entity Asociación Filatrópica y Educativa A. C., and the preparatory level in 1984 and the preschool in 1991 were incorporated under the legal entity Liga México-Panamericana Médico Educacional A. C. In June of 2000, a new entity, Filantrópica y Educativa Hidalgo Veracruzana A. C., was created, and a request was made to the state Department of Education to change all four levels and incorporate them into this new entity. The state gave permission on May 24, 2006.

In the beginning, the school was located at 1051 Valentín Gómez Farías Street in the Ricardo Flores Magón colony with both primary and secondary levels. At the beginning of the 1980’s, a new property was acquired at 445 Díaz Aragón Street, also in the colony of Ricardo Flores Magón. A new building was built there and finished in 1984, which made it possible to add the preparatory level. In that year, the secondary and preparatory levels were located in the new building. The preschool and elementary levels continued to operate in the old building.

In 1984, when the preparatory level was incorporated, the status of the school changed to K-12-- that is, a school with 12 grades according to the classification system of the Adventist Accrediting Association. In 1993, the school received its first accreditation, and later, it received full accreditations in the years 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2018. It is now accredited until 2021.³ Each visit from the accreditation association has fostered better quality in the services offered by the institution in all its areas: physical, mental, and spiritual. The most outstanding period of the Valentín Gómez Farías Adventist School was during the years 1988-1993 when it had more than 700 students, and all of its employees were on full-time contracts. The school has had a good reputation in the community, and this has helped promote a high enrollment.

Many of the staff and graduate have also become well known. Dr. Silvia Ruth Martínez de Montes, who was the principal from 1978 to 1987, is currently a well-respected member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and serves in the medical area as a well-respected doctor in the city. From 1987 to 1994, the principal of the school was Ederseín Alvare López, who later—from 1998 until 2003—was the president of the Linda Vista University. Dr. Raúl Lozano Rivera was the principal from 1994-1995, and later, he became a professor at Linda Vista University and then president of the institution from 2003 to 2008. Currently, he is the president of the Pacific Adventist University in Papua, New Guinea. Principals Emerson López López and Adán Navarro Jiménez later became professors at Linda Vista University. Juan José Andrade González, a graduate, is currently director of the White Research Center and teaches theology at Montemorelos University.

Mission

We are a Christian educational institution that, through an Adventist quality education model, helps students in a holistic way to develop noble characters and a spirit of service to their community here and in the world to come.

The Valentín Gómez Farías Adventist School has worked hard to fulfill its mission. It has prepared many young people who have come to be servants to society and to God. It has stood out because of the quality of the education it provides and the values it promotes. Young people recognize this, and that is what attracts them to become a part of this institution. Many activities have been developed in order to reinforce these values. In the same way, there has been a strong emphasis placed on physical development through activities and healthy nutrition for all of the personnel and the students of the school.

Another important point included in the school plans is keeping the staff up-to-date and qualified in their areas of expertise so they can prepare and present good quality lessons. Because part of the mission of the school is to prepare students to serve in this world, the school tries to make sure its teachers continue their own education so they will be at the forefront of education both in quality and in methods.

Looking back, there is no doubt that God has blessed the school greatly. Everyone at the Valentín Gómez Farías Adventist School believes that they have been and hope to continue being, a light in this place. They know that there is a long road ahead that they must travel, but with God’s help, the Valentín Gómez Farías Adventist School will continue being a blessing for the port of Veracruz and for the world.

Sources

Dirección para la Incorporación de Escuelas Particulares. Accessed September 30, 2020. https://www.sev.gob.mx/escuelas-particulares.

“The Updated Secondary School Accreditation Document as of October 2019,” Adventist Accrediting Association. Accessed September 30, 2020. https://adventistaccreditingassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Secondary Institutions.pdf.

Notes

1. Dirección para la Incorporación de Escuelas Particulares, accessed September 30, 2020, https://www.sev.gob.mx/escuelas-particulares.↩

2. Ibid.↩

3. “The Updated Secondary School Accreditation Document as of October 2019,” Adventist Accrediting Association, accessed September 30, 2020, https://adventistaccreditingassociation.org/institutions/secondary-education/.↩