Anyone who ever worked with Zelene Blancas in El Paso knew her as a teacher whose goal was to spread compassion above all else.
Ms. Blancas, who was born in Texas and lived in Mexico for much of her childhood, was a bilingual Spanish teacher at Dr. Sue A. Shook Primary School and hoped to become a bilingual special education teacher.
She gained popularity online after posting a video in 2018 of his students which got over 23 million views. It showed colleagues hugging each other before the weekend, with smiles spread across their faces as they said goodbye – a reminder of the human capacity for love and connection.
Ms. Blancas tested positive for the virus on October 20 and was hospitalized a few days later, said her brother, Mario Blancas. After she spent nearly two months in the ICU and had exhausted all of her available sick days and paid time off, Mr. Blancas opened a GoFundMe page on December 14 to help pay for his sister’s health care, since she would soon be “without income and will have to bear the full cost of health insurance out of her own pocket”, informs the page.
But this week, at just 35 years old, Ms. Blancas died of complications from Covid-19. His death devastated the city.
During her teaching career, Ms. Blancas used to stay up late to talk on the phone to her students’ parents. She ran a literacy program for parents in the evening, and when classes switched to remote education during the pandemic, she delivered care packages, complete with handwritten notes, to her students. Even from her hospital bed, Ms. Blancas was asking about her work at school, said its principal, Cristina Sanchez-Chavira.
“Her call was just to spread kindness,” said Sanchez-Chavira. “I think education was the vehicle she found, but it was her. She personified kindness and made others feel special. And she did it inside and outside the classroom. “
Ms. Blancas was shocked to see her students’ 2018 music video being shared so widely, said Sanchez-Chavira, adding that, for Ms. Blancas, encouraging empathy among her students has always been a priority.
“She was so humble about it,” said Sanchez-Chavira of the video. “She was just doing everything for the children, and I think that’s what made her a phenomenal teacher – because she did everything with her heart.”
Ms. Blancas spent her 35th birthday in her hospital room, with no family at her side, Blancas said. All the nurses signed a birthday card for her, and her father sent her a picture of a cake and balloons.
The day before his death, Blancas said, he was able to visit his sister. It was painful, he said, to see his only sister in a hospital bed, breathing through a tube, her face swollen from the treatments. He brought a gift that he knew would make her happy: a blanket printed with pictures of his two beloved dogs, Chico and Rocky.