“Around the world in 80 days”. Sounds like either an impossible dream or the plot to a nice book that could never be done in real life. However, for Mr. Eduardo Ortiz, head of the Foreign Language Department, this is a work in progress. 

World Traveler  

   Traveling has been a part of Ortiz’s life ever since he attended college and studied abroad for four years. The first year, in the summer of 1983, he traveled to Italy and Greece. The second year he traveled to Mexico; the third year to Spain and finally back to Italy in 1986.

   Mr. Ortiz has traveled to more than 50 countries, but Petra, Jordan, has been his favorite. “What impressed me the most was how people built houses inside rocks at the top of the mountains,” he said.

He plans on traveling to many other places he hasn’t had the chance to visit like “India, Japan, Thailand, the Moon, Mars, everywhere!” He speaks four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian.

One of his funniest memories while traveling was when, “While in Marseille, France, the police tried to arrest us because they thought my girlfriend was a prostitute and I was her pimp,” he said.    

Head of the Foreign Language Department

Mr. Ortiz has been teaching Spanish (AP, regular) and Italian at Miami High for 27 years. Even though he always wanted to become a civil engineer, he enjoys his teaching career. “It’s something new every day,” he said.

Former students of Mr. Ortiz know how important language and “trespassing the limits of Hialeah” are to him. Mr. Ortiz mentions that learning another language is the best method to communicate and interact with others.

He has been the head of the Foreign Language Department for 10 out of his 27 years of teaching. His responsibilities are very common: “Planning, keeping a record of all books, and keeping the department informed of all information from the school system”.

Miami High Alumni

A former Miami High student, Mr. Ortiz graduated with the Class of 1979. “I had excellent teachers and friends,” he said. In fact, Mr. Ortiz’s favorite high school memories are about his friends, who are still friends with him till this day.

He believes that over the years Miami High has changed in many ways, both for the good and for the bad. On the positive side, he points to the increase of technology use in classes and in the lives of students. On the down side, he said, a lot of students don’t see the need to study or have a career.

After he graduated from Miami High, he received a full scholarship to Florida International University and that paid for his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.  His GPA at FIU was 3.9.