Natalia Górriz

Natalia Górriz de Morales
Natalia Gorriz in 1896
Born	(1868-07-21)July 21, 1868 Chimaltenango,  Guatemala
Signature

Natalia Górriz de Morales (Chimaltenango, 21 July 1868 - ?) was a Guatemalan teacher, pedagogue, and the founder of the (the Central Normal Institute for Young Ladies) in 1888. In 1892, the government of General José María Reina Barrios promoted her to the post of Inspector General of Girls' Schools in Guatemala City. She wrote a book dedicated to Christopher Columbus in honor of that year's fourth centenary of his landing. Her teaching career was put on hold when she married Próspero Morales, in 1894, but after his death in 1898, she started teaching again.

Górriz de Morales graduated from in 1884 with a teacher diploma, and the next year she also obtained a high school diploma. Shortly after graduating she became principal of the only complementary school that existed in Guatemala City at the time under then Secretary of Public Instruction, Antonio Batres Jáuregui and eventually moved to the Instituto Belén faculty where she taught Pedagogy and Grammar with a method that she invented and that kept her students interested in the class and allowed them to reach a professional level even before graduating as teachers.

Górriz lobbied for and eventually got that the government of general Manuel Lisandro Barillas Bercián on 28 June 1888 decreed the creation of the (Normal School for girls) which began started working in the old instituto Belén. In 1891 was named school principal and in 1892 was promoted to General Inspector of Elementary Public Instruction in Guatemala City. She was also president of the Guatemalan Teachers Central Academy and a member of the Madrid Geographic Society.

In 1894, she married then Secretary of Infrastructure and War, Próspero Morales and left her career to focus on her family.

But her marriage with Morales was soon going to undergo serious difficulties; in January 1897, some rebellions started against Reina Barrios; after a mild battle, a group of invaders were defeated and their leaders were taken prisoners, judged and summarily executed on the same day. The opposition press was also critical of the president, accusing him of tyranny given that he had not allowed opposition political parties to prosper.