Bonus: Adelina Otero-Warren

Episode Summary

The Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission was created by Congress in 2019 to commemorate 100 years since the adoption of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. The commission has highlighted untold stories of the women's suffrage movement through events, discussions, and public art projects. In 1915, the National Woman's Party arrived in New Mexico to connect with local leaders about securing a national amendment for women's voting rights. Nina Otero-Warren emerged as a leader in the New Mexico suffrage movement. She came from a prominent Hispanic family and pushed for bilingual organizing. Otero-Warren became head of the state's National Woman's Party chapter in 1917. She also served as Santa Fe County's superintendent of schools from 1918-1929, improving education for Hispanic and Native American communities. In 1921, she became the first Latina to run for U.S. Congress. The commission has partnered with groups empowering women in traditionally male activities like the all-women Highlight Pro Skydiving Team and the U.S. Air Force's first all-female helicopter squadron. Their events honored the centennial of women's suffrage.

Episode Show Notes

The Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission amplifies the untold stories of women’s fight for the vote. In this week's bonus episode, hear how the Commission empowers women to explore traditionally male-dominated spaces -- and the suffragists who inspired this fight.

Episode Transcript

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So you can go off road in a hybrid Tundra and take the scenic, Rutified. Or step inside a plug-in Prius and get glamified. Or hop in an all electric BZ4X and take it Easyified. Toyota is electrified, diversified. And the more ways we can choose to reduce carbon emissions, the closer we all get to Toyota's beyond zero vision. Toyota, let's go places. SPEAKER_00: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is a special bonus episode of Encyclopedia Wamanica brought to you by the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission. Since 2019, the commission has amplified the untold stories of women's fight for the vote with a variety of celebratory events, panel discussions, educational initiatives, and public art projects. It was created by Congress to commemorate 100 years of the 19th Amendment, which was officially adopted on August 26th, 1920. In 1915, an organizer from the National Woman's Party arrived in Santa Fe. New Mexico had been declared a state just three years earlier. And unlike many other Western states, New Mexico's suffrage movement focused on securing a national constitutional amendment, rather than a state one. As word traveled east of New Mexico's goals, one thing became clear to the National Woman's Party headquarters. In order to organize a bilingual region with intersecting indigenous Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo cultures, New Mexican women would need to lead the charge. One prominent local leader took on that job, Nina Otero Warren. Adelina Isabel Emilia Luna Otero was born in 1881 on her family's hacienda near Los Lunas, New Mexico. The Otero clan was politically powerful. Adelina's mother came from some of the area's earliest colonists. Her father traced his lineage back to Spanish settlers in the 1700s. Railroads arrived in the region the same year Adelina was born. With them came white settlers who actively displaced existing indigenous Spanish and Mexican communities. When Adelina was nearly two years old, her father was shot and killed by a white squatter who had moved onto the family's land. Her mother remarried a few years later, and Adelina grew up in what became a household of 12 children. Adelina was sent east for her education, attending Maryville College of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis, Missouri. At 13, she returned home to New Mexico and worked the family's ranch and helped educate her younger siblings. As an adult, Adelina adopted the nickname Nina. When she was 26, she married Rosson Warren. At 35 years old, Rosson was the commanding officer of a cavalry station nearby. But the marriage only lasted two years. Divorce was taboo in both the Anglo and Hispanic cultures of Nina's background. When she returned home to Santa Fe, Nina called herself a widow and kept her married name. Over the subsequent few years, Nina got involved in politics in Santa Fe. She was especially drawn to women's suffrage and to the idea that she, an independent woman who ran her family's ranch, should of course be given the same political voice as her male peers. So when the National Woman's Party came to Santa Fe in 1915 to connect with leaders, Nina was one of them. She pushed for all suffrage literature to be published in both Spanish and English. In 1917, she was named as head of the New Mexico chapter of the National Woman's Party. The next year, in 1918, Nina became the superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe County, a job she held for 11 years. She dedicated herself to improving the quality of education for rural Hispanic and native communities. While the federal government was pushing for assimilation of non-white people into white American culture, Nina pushed back. She fought for both English and Spanish to be taught in schools, despite the federal English-only mandate. In 1921, Nina ran for federal office. She was the Republican Party nominee for New Mexico in the U.S. House of Representatives, losing the election by only 9%. Nina died in 1965 in the Santa Fe home she grew up in. Nina, like many suffragists, forged ahead in what were traditionally male-dominated spaces. She was the first Latina to run for Congress, and she was one of New Mexico's first female government officials when she became Santa Fe superintendent. In honor of the trailblazing spirit of suffragists like Nina, the commission partnered with groups who are empowering women to pursue occupations and activities where they've previously been marginalized. The Highlight Pro Skydiving Team, an all-women team of professional skydivers, is encouraging more women around the world to enter the sport. The commission worked with Highlight to coordinate demonstrations at suffrage centennial events around the country. Highlight performed aerial displays in Seneca Falls, New York, Nashville, Tennessee, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and New York City throughout the summer of 2020 in celebration of 100 years of the 19th Amendment. They jumped wearing purple, white, and gold jumpsuits, had purple, white, and gold smoke trailing behind them, and carried huge replica suffrage banners. The commission also worked with the US Air Force to coordinate a women-led helicopter flyover in Washington, DC on August 26th. At the start of that evening's baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies, the first helicopter squadron flew a two-helicopter formation over Nationals Park in honor of the centennial. After the flyover, the women pilots posed for a photo outside one of the aircrafts. Holding one of the votes for women banners borrowed from the Highlight Pro Skydiving Team, honoring how both groups of women are breaking boundaries. Women have soared to new heights, not just in the sky. For example, the all-women singer-songwriter collective Song Suffragettes is empowering women on the stage. Their mission is to lift up the powerful but underrepresented voices of women in country music. The commission partnered with the Nashville-based group to host the live-streamed weekly performances from the Listening Room Cafe every Monday in August in celebration of the centennial. To learn more about the commission's projects and the stories of women like Nina Otero Warren, visit www.womensvote100.org. Talk to you on Monday. SPEAKER_07: A busy airport may not be the best way to ease into vacation mode, but when you're an American Express Platinum card member, the vacation starts in the Centurion Lounge. SPEAKER_04: Hi, welcome to the Centurion Lounge. Mm, what smells so good? SPEAKER_07: Must be one of the chef's local specialties. 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