Tanya Eulalia Guin

Tanya Ortiz was born in Spanish Harlem and raised in NYC. She graduated from The High School of Music and Art in 1960 and went on to graduate from The City College of New York in 1964 with a Bachelors of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts.

As a member of the Student Art League of New York,  she has had photos of her art work published in their annual magazine for the 1958 and 1959 year.

She met her first husband Robert Gansley on a ski trip, fell in love and was married in 1968. They moved to Pennsylvania in the early 70s where she became an active member of the art community and the Mount Pleasant Hispanic Center.  She started teaching in the Harrisburg School District at the William Penn Campus in Uptown Harrisburg and continued there until she retired in the mid 90s. She taught art at the Yeshiva Academy on North Front Street for their after school program as well as Riverside School during her early years in the city.

As an avid artist she was multidimensional and was a performing artist as well.  She started dancing Flamenco and singing in her youth in New York and brought that with her to Pennsylvania where she began teaching classes at the YWCA on 2nd Street in uptown Harrisburg. As an instructor she was also a voracious student to her dance and continued studying, spending summers in both Spain and in Toronto Canada under the tutelage of Alicia Marquez.

Tanya was a founding member of Danzante established in 1978.  She was the cantora, she also choreographed and taught many different styles of Flamenco dance for the children in the group. In the mid 90s Danzante’s founders developed an afterschool program for Latinx and Afro-Latinx students to embrace their culture and heritage through the arts.  Tanya provided a space for these students to come and participate in bilingual theatre and she brought artists from Puerto Rico, Philadelphia and New York City to come work with these students.

Other accolades and accomplishments:

*Chosen as Dauphin Counties Feature Artist for the State Quilt Hanging in the Court House on Front Street

*Chosen as the Feature Artist of Harrisburg (with her students) to create the 4 Murals at The Hispanic Center on 13th St. in Allison Hill

In the early and mid 80s Tanya worked on a team of women for the Mayor’s Project to Eradicate Discrimination in Housing and Prosecute Slumlords.

She was a long time member of Lakeside Lutheran church singing in the choir.  She loved to sing.  Tanya was a cherished teacher, advocate, and friend to many families in the Harrisburg community. She opened her home to many in their time of need and many of her students said she was like a second mother. She, along with her family hosted high school exchange students and foster children.

Tanya met her 2nd husband Michael Guin after she had retired from teaching. He loved her dearly and took every moment to show her that she was special.  They traveled up and down the east coast where Tanya showed her art at juried shows, sang and danced her way into the hearts of other art communities and the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA). She also continued to teach mask making, doll making and quilting out of her home both in North Carolina and where she finally finished their journey in Jacksonville.

Tanya Eulalia Guin was preceded in death by both of her parents, Carmita Medina Ortiz (1922 – 2007), Luis Antonio Ortiz, and her husbands Robert Gansley (1936-2010) and Michael Guin (1949-2016).

Tanya leaves behind her younger sister Deidre Ortiz of Bridgewater, NJ. Her daughters Andrea Ortiz Boyer (Cliff) of Newport, PA and Deidre Margarita Gansley- Ortiz of Atlantic Beach, Florida, Grandson Antonio Luis Gansley-Ortiz of Saugerties, NY, and Granddaughter Gabrielle Elyse Ledee of Atlantic Beach, Florida.

Tanya had just turned 81 before her passing and wished to extend thanks to everyone who sent her birthday letters and cards. They truly touched her soul and in some instances made her cry from the beautiful memories.  She wishes that all her former students will remember her as loving and strict but fair. Her motto was reach one, teach one…and she taught three generations of students in the Harrisburg community.

There will be no memorial service as Tanya was not one for religion and their patriarchal ideals…but was spiritual and had her own journey with G-d and the earth as it moves and changes over time.  She asks that if you find it in your heart to make a donation in her name please send to St. Judes Children’s Hospital, The March of Dimes, your local Humane Society to help a rescue dog, your local Hospice Center or donate art supplies to a local school.

Crevasse’s Simple Cremation is honored to serve the Guin family.