Hortensia was born and raised in Lima, Peru. There she attended San Marcos University earning a BA in Economics, and this was followed by addition study in Planning and Political Economics at the University of Budapest in Hungary. She started her professional life working in various Peruvian government departments such as the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Labour and Social Security Management Office dealing with accountancy and as working as a business analyst.
Fifteen years later after earning her first diploma, she added to her credentials a Diploma in Foreign Language Teaching from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She embarked on a career in education and has recently retired after 25 years of service at as an IBMYP and IBDP language teacher at an IB World School in London, teaching both Language A and Language B. She attended many IB conferences over that period and also contributed to the develop the IBDP Spanish Ab Initio course. She has taught at private language schools and the University of Westminster and at Hammersmith and West London College as a lecturer in Spanish, and as a Spanish language consultant with Shell International. She has also supervised students of self-taught A level Spanish. During her career as a Spanish teacher she has taught students ranging in age from 10 to 68. She has supervised MBA students. She continues to be active teaching Spanish to private clients in greater London.
