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New Mexico Women #2: Nina Otero-Warren LbNA #63040

Owner:Wronghat
Plant date:Sep 3, 2012
Location: Village of Los Lunas Public Library 460 Main Street, NW
City:Los Lunas
County:Valencia
State:New Mexico
Boxes:1
Found by: CW Sun Seeker
Last found:Oct 8, 2022
Status:FFFFFFFF
Last edited:Sep 3, 2012
New Mexico Women #2
Adelina "Nina" Otero-Warren (1881-1965)

In Los Lunas, 1881, Nina was born into two of the territory's oldest families: the Lunas on her mother's side, and the Oteros on her father's. After attending college in St. Louis (1892-1894), Nina moved back to New Mexico, but relocated to Santa Fe where her uncle, Miguel Otero, was appointed territorial governor.

By 1914, she became active in the group which worked for women's suffrage. She rallied support among both Spanish and English-speaking communities. Her "patient but incessant badgering of the NM congressional delegation" quickly convinced them to vote in favor of the 19th Amendment in 1920. (It's been almost 100 years since women were given the right to vote, so we forget how strong the opposition was. One poster read: "DANGER! Women's Suffrage Would Double the Irresponsible Vote. It is a MENACE to the Home, Men's Employment and to All Business.")

Otero-Warren was elected Superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools (1917), later being appointed State Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps by Pres. Roosevelt. She was noted for her book, Old Spain in our Southwest (1936), and named NM State Director of Literacy Education in 1937. Here in Los Lunas, where she began, is a fitting place to honor her accomplishments.

Clues:
1. Take I-25 south to Los Lunas exit, the exit for State Highway 6. Go east toward center of town.
2. Continue on Main Street (Hwy. 6) east through the State Highway 314 intersection and across some railroad tracks.
3. You'll see about a block away, on the left, Los Lunas's library.
4. Turn in left at Village of Los Lunas Public Library (right across the street from Los Lunas Middle School). Park in any of the spaces heading north and furthest from the library's front entrance.
5. Walk a short distance in a northwestern direction to a river of rocks and you'll see one stone bench under a cottonwood tree. Continue to the bench.
6. At the base of another cottonwood tree (about 12 feet away), southwest of the bench, you'll find letterbox on west side of tree. Look for a couple of red rocks hiding the suffragette with her banner and waving flag.