Clotilde Falcón de Náñez

Clotilde Falcón de Náñez, a seventh generation Tejano, was born in Rio Grande City, Texas in 1908. She studied at Westmoreland College in San Antonio and graduated cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin (B.A., 1932) where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clotilde Náñez later attended SMU, receiving a Master of Arts degree in Ibero-American civilization in 1970. Her work as an educator included teaching in public schools and serving fourteen years as Head of the Spanish department at Saint Mary’s Hall, a private, college preparatory school in San Antonio. She also taught at Trinity University, San Antonio, in the SMU School of Continuing Education, Dallas, and at Pan American University, Edinburgh, Texas.

Clotilde Náñez served the church as an author, compiler, and translator of Sunday School curriculum; as hymn writer, translator, and hymnal committee member; and as a School of Christian Mission instructor. She was a member of the Women’s Division of the Board of Missions of The Methodist Church from 1964 to 1968. Falcón de Náñez was elected to many leadership positions in the Woman’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS), today’s United Methodist Women. From 1975 to 1977 she served as president of the Rio Grande Conference WSCS.

Clotilde Náñez’s published writings include hymn texts and translations, Sunday School lessons for students and teachers, and articles in church-related periodicals. For twenty-six consecutive years she and her mother, Élida García de Falcón, translated the WSCS annual program books into Spanish. Falcón de Náñez was the author of “Hispanic Clergy Wives: Their Contribution to United Methodism in the Southwest,” a chapter in the 1981 book Women in New Worlds. With her husband she co-authored “Methodism among the Spanish Speaking People of Texas,” a chapter in The History of Texas Methodism, 1900-1960.

In 1986 The Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries honored Clotilde Náñez by including her biography in the book, They Went Out Not Knowing… An Encyclopedia of One Hundred Women in Mission. The 2000 Rio Grande Annual Conference memorialized her with these words: “Hermana Clotilde Falcón de Náñez fue para nuestra Conferencia una matriarca, columna, y discipula ejemplar.” (“Sister Clotilde Falcón de Náñez was for our conference a matriarch, pillar, and model disciple.”)

Clotilde Falcón and Alfredo Náñez met in 1926 and were married in Brownsville, Texas in 1934. They had three children: Guillermo Náñez, Ph.D., Marta Consuelo Harris, and Rolando Antonio Náñez.

“Clotilde Falcón Náñez.” Minutes of the Rio Grande Conference. 2000.