Irene Ortiz

Peruvian educator who pioneered bilingual education systems for indigenous communities

Irene Ortiz (1912-1989) revolutionized Andean education through her creation of the Quechua-Spanish bilingual program that became the model for UNESCO's 1953 Indigenous Education Charter. Growing up in Cusco among Quechua-speaking communities, she witnessed the erasure of native languages in schools. Her 1938 thesis Education Without Erasure (translated here: Peruvian Studies Archive) argued for preserving indigenous languages as part of national identity.

In 1942, she established the first bilingual school in Puno using her own funds, later expanding to 45 schools by 1960 through the UNESCO-sponsored Andean Education Project. Her 1955 publication Two Tongues, One Nation influenced Bolivia's 1959 bilingual education law. The Latin American Journal of Education credits her with coining the term 'intercultural pedagogy' now used in OAS frameworks.

Ortiz's 1968 creation of mobile teacher training units reached 17,000 educators in remote regions. Her work is preserved in the Peruvian Oral History Project interviews. Though her name is absent from most textbooks, her legacy persists in Peru's 2003 Indigenous Languages Law. Modern educators like Gloria Cano call her 'the architect of decolonized education systems.'