September 15 through October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. This month we will be sharing information on a few of the Hispanic persons for whom schools are named in Santa Fe.
Nina Otera
Nina Otera (1881-1965) certainly had enough family money that she did not have to work. And yet, in 1918, while still working for suffrage and taking care of her family, Otero-Warren took the job as Superintendent of Public Schools in Santa Fe County—a job she held until 1929, working to improve the conditions in rural Hispano and Native American communities. During this time, the federal government was pressuring for assimilation of non-whites, including Native American and Hispano people, into white America. This assimilation meant loss of traditional language, customs, and often family ties. As Superintendent of Public Schools, Nina worked to balance the demands of the federal government and her pride in her Spanish cultural heritage. For example, she argued that both Spanish and English be allowed in schools, despite the federal mandate of English-only. For a few years beginning in 1923, she was also appointed Santa Fe County’s Inspector of Indian Schools. She was angered by what she observed in the schools and criticized the federal government’s Indian school system for the terrible conditions she observed. (Read more.)
The Nina Otero Community School opened in 2014. It was designed to take pressure off other schools as population grew on the south side of Santa Fe.
“The new school’s mascot is a mustang, and its colors are black and blue. The facility was named after the late educational advocate, suffragette and superintendent of county schools Nina Otero (1881-1965). The building cost about $32 million in 2009 and 2013 general obligation bond funds and is designed to ease overcrowding in other south-side elementary schools, including Ortiz Middle School, Sweeney Elementary School and César Chávez Community School.” (“Nina Otero Community School welcomes first students,” Article from The New Mexican, August 18, 2014, Updated August 20, 2014)
Belina Ramirez and Anita Thomas
When naming the new elementary school in Santa Fe’s southwest side, the School Board could not decide which person to honor, so they named the school after two people: Anita Gonzales Thomas and Belinda Ramirez. The school opened in 2003. (SFNM 13 May 2013 and 19 Jun 2022)
Anita Gonzales Thomas (1908-1999)
Anita was a longtime schoolteacher, widely noted as a pioneer in bilingual education and cultural preservation. She was also a longtime supporter of Spanish Market, and she won a blue ribbon for a colcha embroidery bedspread at the 1933 market. In the late 1960s, she began volunteering at the market, and she later served on the board of directors of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society, the market’s parent organization.
(SFNM, 22 Jul 2018)
Belina Ramirez (1917-1994)
Belina Ramirez served on the Santa Fe School Board for 12 years, beginning in 1957. She was involved in many groups such as La Sociedad Folklorica de Santa Fe, St. Francis Altar Society, the Pan American Club, and the Does. She was an accomplished seamstress who learned Hispanic embroidery, and she was also a frequent traveler and an avid reader.
(SFNM, 31 Dec 1994)
Carlos Gilbert and
Fabiola Gabeza de Baca Gilbert
Very little information is available about Carlos Gilbert, an insurance salesman who served on the school board. In 1940, the census tells us he was 46 years old and lived in Santa Fe with his wife Fabiola.
A great deal more is known about Fabiola Gabeza de Baca Gilbert (1984-1991). She earned a teaching certificate from New Mexico Normal College in Las Vegas in 1921 and bachelor’s degrees in pedagogy and home economics. She “was the first agent in New Mexico to work among Pueblo Indian women and girls, learning in the process to speak the Tewa and Tiwa languages,” according to the University of New Mexico. Later, she hosted a bilingual radio program in Santa Fe, wrote a weekly homemakers newspaper column and was a prolific author. (“Remembering the NMSU alumna who invented the u-shaped taco,” The Las Cruces Bulletin, May 10, 2022)
Our church has a long history with our neighbor Carlos Gilbert Elementary School, with many of our congregation still actively involved in tutoring students there. The school, funded by the New Deal, opened in 1942. The school’s first principal, Lida B. White, supervised 13 teachers in a school that only had three telephones in the entire building and a cafeteria in the basement. In the late 1940s, the school’s fourth grade had almost 50 kids in it. The school now serves 334 students with a pupil to teacher ratio of 14 to 1 and in 2019 placed in the top 5% of all schools in New Mexico for overall test scores.
E.J. Martinez
E.J. Martinez Sr. (1906-1983) was a prominent resident and community leader in Santa Fe. He was elected to the School Board in 1953 and served as its president. During his working career he served Santa Fe as Deputy County Clerk, County Clerk, Clerk of Probate Court, Letter Carrier, and Postmaster. He was active in the community through the United Latin American Citizens, Democratic party, Fiesta organizations, the St. Francis Cathedral parish, and Knights of Columbus. His obituary shows he was survived by his wife Frances and three sons and five daughters.
E.J. Elementary School, which opened in 1953, is o ne of the oldest elementary schools in Santa Fe. The school has a student population of 230 students with a student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1. The school has the oldest garden and orchard that is lovingly taken care of by the students and staff. A strong parent organization is evident by the numerous fundraisers and projects taken on by the parents. The school has a fruitful engagement with the Santa Fe Opera’s Active Learning Through Opera (ALTO) program. The ALTO program brings world-class consultants and teaching artists to collaborate with E.J. Martinez’s classroom teachers around the belief that successful schools are engaging, collaborative, joyful and inspiring. The school also provides robust extended learning opportunities through after-care programs.