Two Ph.D. candidates in History at UNM will speak on Tuesday, June 5 at 1 p.m. in the Waters Room (105) of Zimmerman Library on the UNM Campus. The talks are co-hosted by the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, the Historical Society of New Mexico and The Office of the State Historian as part of the 2012 History Scholars Lecture Series.
Jacobo Baca
Jacobo D. Baca, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at UNM speaks on “Pueblos and Hispanos in the Era of Federal Relief: The New Deal, 1933–1945″ on Tuesday, June 5 at 1 p.m. in the Waters Room (105) of Zimmerman Library on the UNM campus.
During the New Deal, the federal government inaugurated more than a half-decade of intensive studies of Pueblo and Hispano villages that demonstrated similarities between their dependence on and relationships to the land. Led by Indian Commissioner John Collier, activists-turned-bureaucrats held on to their notions the Pueblo Indians and Hispanos were fundamentally different peoples whose fortunes depended on mutual hostility and deprivation. Building from these ideas they fashioned during the crusade for Pueblo land rights in the Pueblo Lands Boards fight of the 1920s, advocates worked to use New Deal liberalism to repatriate land to Pueblo Indian communities.
They faced stern and steady opposition to their unilateral pro-Pueblo approach from Senator Dennis Chavez, who stood firm against Collier’s will to aid the Pueblos at the expense of surrounding Hispano villages. This lecture focuses on how the Indian Pueblos and Hispano villages in the Tewa Basin experienced New Deal reform and how this reform impacted their raltionship with one another and with the federal and state governments.
Baca is working on his dissertation “Somos indigena: Ethnic Politics and Land Tenure in Modern New Mexico, 1904–2004.” In it he explores ethnic politics and modern land tenure in the Indian Pueblos and Hispano villages in New Mexico’s Tewa Basin. He also studies the changing relationship with federal, state and local governments and how that impacted social and structural relations among the Pueblo and Hispano peoples.
Bryan Turo
Bryan W. Turo will speak on “An Empire of Dust: Thomas Benton Catron and the Rise of Corporate Enterprise in New Mexico, 1866–1921.” As a Republican Party boss in New Mexico for half a century, Thomas Benton Catron contributed to the growth of the territory and its incorporation into the larger frame of democracy and capitalism in the United States and abroad.
But more than that, Catron’s life can help to explain how American culture and institutions infiltrated the western territories in the years following the Civil War. This lecture will explore how Catron grew an empire out of the acquisition of land in New Mexico and other parts of the west and how he used it to make money in the form of joint stock companies.
Turo was raised in White Plains, N.Y. and completed his Bachelor’s degree in Binghamton University. After tiring of harsh winters, he moved to Tucson, Ariz. To earn a Master’s in History at the University of Arizona in 2008. Since then, he has lived in Albuquerque where he is in the process of earning a Ph.D. from UNM. He studies U.S. history, with a focus on the West and Southwest. He is currently finishing his dissertation on the life and times of Thomas Catron.
The lecture is free and the public is welcome.
This week, New Mexico in Focus highlights politics. With all 112 state lawmakers up for re-election, and the presidential race beginning to take shape, the line analyzes key match-ups as candidates within both parties take on tough primary challengers.
Brindle Foundation Awards Grant to UNM’s Family Development Program to Promote High Quality Early Education
The Brindle Foundation, a Santa Fe-based nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to early childhood development, recently awarded a $25,720 grant to the UNM College of Education’s Family Development Program to publish Watch Me Play, Watch Me Learn In Nature book.
The Watch Me Play, Watch Me Learn in Nature publication builds upon the companion book Watch Me Play, Watch Me Learn, a publication that has been well received by families, early childhood educators and early care providers throughout the state of New Mexico, also funded generously by the Brindle Foundation.
The Watch Me Play, Watch Me Learn in Nature celebrates children’s innate curiosity and exploration in the natural world and provides insights directly from young children themselves that can help sharpen our understanding and planning for how to integrate early learning into an innovative New Mexico plan for environmental literacy that begins at birth.
“We took time to observe and photograph young children in a variety of settings – from small backyards to wide-open farms and river fronts – and observed how they came to understand the natural world,” said UNM Family Development Program Director Lois Vermilya. “The children showed us that nature provides an environment that promotes the development of skills essential for life-long learning. Throughout the book we examine nature as teacher using the essential skills all children need for success and life-long learning.”
As with the Watch Me Play, Watch Me Learn books and training series, FDP staff members will incorporate the new nature publication to build on the successful series that supports families and early childhood educators. The intent is to engage parents and teachers in the understanding that all of the elements in the natural world provide an endless source of possibilities for imagination, play and learning.
This newest publication addresses children’s early education in the natural world: all components that provide an unlimited learning environment for discovery, imagination, observation, interaction, and experimentation. Their innate curiosity and disciplined sensibilities for inquiry build strong foundations for early science, math and literacy while also promoting the development of skills essential for life-long learning.
“When we carefully observe babies, toddlers and preschoolers exploring the natural world – and using all their senses – we can see thoughtful young scientists at work. Their investigations demonstrate questions and theories about how things work, while also showing us children’s delight and determination as fully engaged and active learners,” stated Vermilya. “And all this happens at a time of rapid brain development and when exposure to the world outside helps build stronger immune systems in their developing bodies. Getting dirty can be fun and healthy.”
FDP is in support of New Mexico’s Environmental Literacy Plan, and believes that a thoughtful review of how New Mexico can integrate universal principals developed by the Nature Action Collaborative for Children, a workgroup of the World Forum Foundation, will be helpful. The goal is to help New Mexico bridge our state’s Early Learning Guidelines with K – 12 common core standards that include a continuum of learning for environmental education and stewardship.