The women of New Mexico owe their right to vote to one woman: Adelina Otero Warren. Her story will be told in two programs that are highlighted in New Mexico’s statewide centennial (1912-2012) now underway.
Three large banners showing women campaigning to win the right to vote will hang from the ceiling of the Española Library during the month of August in order to bring attention to this program featuring the long and difficult struggle by women for the franchise.
The “¡Mujeres Presente! New Mexico Women Who Rocked the Vote” program features Crestina Quintana, Kata Bennett, and Marguerite Kearns. Quintana will present first-person historical characterizations of Adelina Otero Warren, a Votes for Women activist and one of the first women in New Mexico to hold high public office.
She will be joined by Kata Bennett whose great grandmother campaigned for Votes for Women in Las Vegas, N. M.
Marguerite Kearns will tell about her grandmother who hitched a horse to a wagon that was used as a speakers’ platform to bring attention to the suffrage cause. Residents of Northern New Mexico will participate in these two programs by telling their own family stories of strong grandmothers, great grandmothers and great-great-great grandmothers, who either worked to win the right to vote or lived beyond traditional roles.
The history of tenacious women and the vote will be presented as storytelling about the past which has implications for the present-day and the urgent need for women to step into leadership roles in their own communities, exercise their right to vote, and participate in the democratic process.
A voter registration table will be available during the Program, Community members are encouraged to bring personal, family, and community stories of challenges and leadership to the event to share.
The Program is scheduled for Aug. 23 at 1 p.m. in the Española Library, located at 313 N Paseo de Oñate.
Refreshments provided by the Friends of the Library.
For inquiries contact the Española Library at 505-747-6087.