A Tribute to the Women of New Mexico
In 2024 LongView sponsored and participated in a number of community events, including a river clean up for the Santa Fe Watershed Association and the Santa Fe Pride Parade. Before we dive into yet another event-filled summer, we want to take a moment to reflect on the fundraiser we hosted last September for the trailblazing New Mexico Historic Women Marker program.
We enjoyed the beautiful fall weather in our garden with clients, friends, and local elected officials, while learning about some of the remarkable contributions that women have made to New Mexico history. LongView was honored to have several notable speakers in attendance, including Mayor Alan Webber.
Though March was officially women’s month, we think it’s important to celebrate the contributions of women year-round. In that spirit, we wanted to go back and highlight the work that the New Mexico Historic Women Marker program does, and the women they call attention to.
The state began its Official Scenic Historic Markers program in 1935, and by 2005 there were nearly 500 markers in place along New Mexico roads, commemorating historic sites and individuals. Almost none of them featured women. The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program was started in 2006 to ensure that the remarkable women who have helped shape New Mexico are no longer excluded from the official narrative.
Today the program has erected over 120 markers throughout the state to recognize the courage, creativity and resilience of women from every county and tribal community in New Mexico that has agreed to participate. To extend its educational reach, it expanded its programming to include a k-12 school curriculum, museum exhibitions, and collaborations with libraries and state publications.
In addition to celebrating women of the past, the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program has recently begun to celebrate living women who are making a difference in our community today. In March, the organization honored women from across the state who are leaving their mark on New Mexico, including artist Rose B. Simpson, New Mexico Asequia Association Executive Director Paula Garcia, and engineer Annette Sobel.
The highlight of our September event was a presentation by the former Chief Judge of the New Mexico Court of Appeals and former president of the International Women's Forum New Mexico, Celia Castillo, about the remarkable life and accomplishments of Nina Otero Warren, as well as a moving address by mayor Alan Webber.
Nina Otero 1881-1965
Nina Otero was a woman who lived life on her own terms. She was a suffragist, an educator, a feminist, a public servant, a businesswoman, a homesteader, an author, and a politician. By coincidence, her family home for many years was located across the street from LongView’s 1851 office building on Grant Avenue, in what is now the Georgia O’Keeffe Learning Annex.
Nina Otero was born in 1881 on her family’s hacienda in Las Lunas, south of Albuquerque. Unconventional from the start, she defied the social norms of the time by getting married at the relatively late age of 26, and got divorced just two years later. After her divorce she moved to Santa Fe where, to escape the social stigma of being a woman who had willingly left her husband, she pretended to be a widow.
In 1910, Nina entered the fight for women’s suffrage, joining the National Association of Women's Clubs. In 1917 she was invited by the famous suffragette Alice Paul to lead the New Mexico Chapter of Congressional Union. A year later, while continuing to fight for women's rights, Nina became the first female Superintendent of Public Schools for Santa Fe County.
During the 1910’s and 20’s America tried to force the assimilation of Hispanic and Native peoples by denying their right to practice cultural traditions or speak languages other than English. Nina vocally opposed this, insisting that political pamphlets and educational materials be available in both English and Spanish, and that both languages be taught in schools. When she was appointed the Santa Fe County Inspector of Indian Schools, she spoke out against the terrible conditions she observed. Her critique caused her to lose her job, but strengthened her political conviction.
Women in New Mexico finally won the right to vote in 1920. Two years later, a constitutional amendment passed giving women the right to run for office for the first time. Nina ran for national congress. She won the Republican primary easily, but ended up losing the election to her Democratic opponent after her uncle, territorial governor Miguel Otero, outed her for lying about her divorce.
Nina spent the second half of her life living and working in Santa Fe with her partner Mamie Meadors. Together they homesteaded a ranch on the outskirts of the city, and started a real estate company. Nina also wrote books and articles about the Southwest. Her historic marker is located in Las Lunas outside of the Las Lunas Rail Runner station.
A few more women whose legacies are featured on roadside markers are listed below:
Cathay Williams 1844 - Unknown
Cathay Williams was the only documented woman to serve in the Regular U.S. Army in the 19th century. Born into slavery in Missouri around 1844, she gained her freedom at the start of the civil war only to be compelled back into forced labor by the Union Army. She worked as a cook and laundress for General Phillip Sheridan and his staff during some of the last major battles of the war in the Shenandoah Valley. After the war she disguised herself as a man and enlisted in a volunteer infantry company in the New Mexico territory. She was discharged with a certificate of disability after her gender was discovered.
Cathay’s marker is located off the Hatch Highway NE, just outside of Deming.
Graciela Olivarez 1928 - 1987
Graciela was the first woman to graduate from Notre Dame Law School, where she was accepted despite lacking a high school diploma. In 1972, she moved to New Mexico as Director of the Institute for Social Research and Development at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Over the course of her life she worked in New Mexico state and national policy, leaving a legacy as a civil rights activist, attorney, artist, entrepreneur, and community leader. In 1980 she started the nation’s only Spanish-language television network. She was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity by President Lyndon Johnson, and President Richard Nixon appointed her to the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future.
Her marker is located in Albuquerque at the corner of Avenida Cesar Chavez, and Broadway Blvd SE.
Katherine Stinson Otero, the “Flying Schoolgirl” 1891 - 1977
Katherine Stinson Otero was the fourth American woman to earn a pilot’s license. She was also the first female skywriter - a popular advertising technique used from the 1920s through the 1940s in which pilots would fly planes in intricate loops and patterns to create letters and messages by emitting visible smoke. Although she was denied permission to fly in WWI, Katherine was the first female aviator to fly in Asia and in 1917 she set a record for the longest West Coast solo flight. She was a founder of the Stinson Aviation Company, where she designed aircraft and operated a flight school. In 1920 Katherine came to New Mexico to seek treatment for tuberculosis, and met famous architect John Gawl Meem, who was a fellow patient. This encounter led to her second fruitful career as a designer of homes in Santa Fe, where she lived until her death.
Her marker is off Camino de la Rosa Castilla, outside Placitas in the hills north of Albuquerque.
Pablita Velarde, Tse Tsan, “Golden Dawn” 1918 - 2006
Pablita Velarde is well-known as one of the most prominent Native painters in the Southwest. She was born in Santa Clara Pueblo in 1918, and attended the Santa Fe Indian School as a teenager, where she began painting scenes of pueblo women performing daily activities. This choice of subject matter was considered highly unusual at the time. Between 1939 and 1945, Pablita completed over eighty paintings for the Bandelier project, offering a glimpse into Pueblo life in the early twentieth century. Over the course of her life she won multiple awards and accolades for her artistic achievements.
Pablita’s marker can be found near the Kha’p’o Community school in Santa Clara Pueblo.
We are grateful to the Women Historic Marker Program for highlighting the important contributions of women to our state, and are proud to support this work. To get involved, click here.
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Images Curtesy of the New Mexico Historic Women Markers Project.