This New Mexico program is bringing women's history out of the shadows

SANTA FE, N.M. -- On a caller tract travel to presumption humanities markers successful New Mexico’s superior metropolis of Santa Fe, seventh grader Raffi Paglayan noted the scope of careers and contributions made by the women featured connected them.

Paglayan’s favourite was Katherine Stinson Otero, a skywriter who was 1 of the archetypal women to get a pilot’s licence successful the U.S. After Stinson Otero contracted tuberculosis portion driving ambulances successful World War I, she moved to New Mexico and started a 2nd vocation arsenic a renowned architect.

“She seems beauteous cool,” Paglayan said with a smile.

Introducing New Mexicans to women from the state's past is the extremity of a decades-long programme that has enactment up astir 100 roadside markers featuring the important contributions of women from oregon with ties to New Mexico. Now the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program is branching retired to make a program for schools based connected its research.

“It’s conscionable truthful indispensable that each students, not conscionable pistillate students, but each pupil has the quality to admit and spot the value of the radical that person done truthful overmuch enactment to make what we have,” said Lisa Nordstrum, the acquisition manager and mediate schoolhouse teacher who took Paglayan and her classmates connected the tract trip.

The roadworthy marker efforts started decades ago. Pat French, a founding subordinate of the International Women's Forum - New Mexico, a enactment and networking group, noticed successful the 1980s that determination were hardly immoderate women mentioned successful immoderate of the state's historical roadside markers. In 2006, the radical secured authorities backing to enactment with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to alteration that.

Over the years, the radical visited idiosyncratic counties and Native American communities, asking for stories astir important women successful their history. The probe compiled biographies of dozens of women from precolonial times done the Spanish and Mexican territory periods, and into the clip erstwhile New Mexico became a state.

Now those women's stories are displayed connected 6-foot signs crossed the authorities and successful an online database. While immoderate grant well-known humanities figures specified arsenic American modernist creator Georgia O’Keeffe and New Mexico's archetypal pistillate Secretary of State Soledad Chávez de Chacón, galore others diagnostic section women whose stories person not been wide told.

For example, Evelyn Vigil and Juanita Toledo are remembered for reviving the Pecos Pueblo benignant of pottery successful the 1970s, aft the indigenous Pecos Pueblo colonisation was decimated by years of illness and warfare by the 1890s, and the pottery techniques were lost.

“There is conscionable a consciousness of justness astir it,” said programme manager Kris Pettersen. “These women enactment each this effort successful and made each these contributions, and they were unrecognized, and that’s conscionable wrong.”

Other markers are dedicated to groups of women, specified arsenic healers and the state's pistillate subject veterans. The postulation notes that the past of the authorities cannot beryllium told without recognizing the struggle that came with colonialization and the wars fought implicit the territory.

“They are not, however, the archetypal women to instrumentality up arms and support their homes and nine successful our region,” the veterans' online blurb notes. “New Mexico is simply a authorities of culturally divers radical who person protected themselves implicit galore centuries.”

For now, the radical has paused creating caller markers, opting to support the existent ones and absorption connected the acquisition mission.

Over 10 years ago, Nordstrum had a revelation akin to French's: There was a deficiency of women successful the modular authorities past curriculum. She stumbled upon online biographies from the marker programme and started teaching their stories to her seventh graders.

In 2022, the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program secured authorities backing to prosecute Nordstrum to make a K-12 program from women’s biographies.

“We person women that wouldn’t beryllium successful immoderate textbook,” Nordstrum said.

The backing was renewed successful 2024 with bipartisan support. One of the legislation’s co-sponsors, Republican authorities Rep. Gail Armstrong, believes it’s important for New Mexico residents, young and old, to recognize however the satellite they unrecorded successful was formed.

“History, bully oregon bad, should not beryllium changed. It needs to beryllium remembered truthful that we don’t marque the aforesaid mistakes again and truthful that we tin observe the bully things that person happened,” she said.

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Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan.