BIO:
Verónica A. Gutiérrez, a historian specializing in the origins of Mexican Catholicism, is Director of the Great Books Program en español for the Angelicum Academy, a fully online Catholic homeschooling program renowned for its online Socratic discussions. With an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Penn State and a PhD in Colonial Mexican History from UCLA, her scholarship and teaching challenge the myths pervading native peoples of the Americas. A trained writer, award-winning scholar, and sought-after speaker, she has provided keynotes in the U.S. and Mexico, co-led a faculty development tour through Mexico, “From 1519 to 2019: Indigenous Christianity in Mexico 500 Years after Cortés” (#CFHMexico2019), given a TEDx talk about Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, and has published in English and Spanish.
From 2012-2022 she was Azusa Pacific University’s first and only Latin American historian. In addition to serving as an Internationalization Faculty Fellow in APU’s Center for Global Learning and Engagement and as PI for APU’s institutional NEH-HSI grant, during her final 6 years she served as Director of Undergraduate Research, transforming that office from a little known entity into a recognized resource for students and faculty across the disciplines. Currently, she is writing a children’s chapter book for Ignatius Press about sixteenth-century native visionary, Juan Diego, from an indigenous perspective, introducing readers to the beauties of Nahua (Aztec) culture. Her most important job, however, is as a homeschooling mom to her three children.