Hortensia Hourruitiner San Juan, 90, a retired teacher of Spanish, taught at Francis Parker School and volunteered at Casa Central, where she created the newsletter “Miconoticias.”
A resident of the Lincoln Park neighborhood, she died Monday in Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center.
“My mother was someone who gave constantly,” her daughter, Pastora Cafferty, said. “She taught our cleaning lady English and her nurse, Spanish. She was doing her doctoral studies in a time and place when other young women were doing needlework. . . . Throughout her whole life she remained adamant that no kind of social ranking such as wealth or class can ever measure the real worth of a person.”
A native of Cienfuegos, Cuba, she graduated from Normal Teachers College of Las Villas and received her Ph.D. from the University of Havana.
She taught mathematics and published public school textbooks before moving to Miami in 1948. She was a teacher there and later in the community college system in Alabama, where she also founded a library and worked with senior citizens.
Her newsletter at Casa Central remains an important communications tool for the Northwest Side social service agency.
Survivors, besides her daughter, include a son, Rafael San Juan; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Friday in Bond Chapel of the University of Chicago, 1025 E. 58th St.
