The presidential candidates for the upcoming 2012 November election are scrambling to win the women’s vote. But relatively few  people nationwide actually know what it took to win the franchise. When the real story is told, women generally take voting much more seriously. And this perspective represents the thinking of New Mexico Women Who Rocked the Vote, the group organizing the New Mexico event. The August celebrations are an official events of the New Mexico state centennial (1912-2012).

New Mexico women owe their right to vote to the hard work of many activists before and after statehood. One of these is Adelina Otero Warren. Her story will be highlighted in two northern NM events on August 23 and 26, 2012 in Española, NM that are part of the statewide centennial celebration (1912-2012), currently underway. 

Three large banners showing women campaigning to win the right to vote are hanging from the ceiling of the Española Library during the month of August in order to bring attention to these special programs featuring the long and difficult struggle by women for the franchise.  New Mexico women campaigned for the right to vote before and after statehood. They won the right to vote after the state legislature ratified the 19th amendment in 1920.

“Mujeres Presente: New Mexico Women Who Rocked the Vote” is a special program scheduled for Thursday, August 23, 2012, 1 p.m. at the Española Library and then again on Sunday, August 26th, 1 p.m., at the Galeria Santa Cruz y el Espresso. The program features a cast of women who will present storytelling and a first-person historical characterization of Adelina Otero Warren, a Votes for Women activist and one of the first women in New Mexico to hold high public office. There will also be a display case at the Española Library during August 2012 featuring “Great Women in History” paper dolls decorated by Konweniahesen Lavina Gray, a fifth grade student at the Santa Clara Pueblo.

Residents of northern New Mexico will also participate in these two August 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 the expectations of their time. The history of tenacious women and the vote 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 two “Mujeres Presente: New Mexico Women Who Rocked the Vote” presentations. A display case in the Santa Fe Library, La Farge branch (1730 Llano Street in Santa Fe), during the month of August also highlights New Mexico women and their campaigning to win the vote.

For more information, contact New Mexico Women Rock: nmwomenrock.wordpress.com or nmwomenrock at gmail.com