This week on New Mexico in Focus, correspondent Antonia Gonzales speaks with two New Mexicans about their thoughts and emotions after President Joe Biden's formal apology for the harm caused by Indian boarding schools.
Sixth-grade student Rainier Long is an avid reader. When his school, Carlos Gilbert Elementary in Santa Fe, cut library time to make room for a technology class, Rainier organized a series of escalating protests. Rainier tells Our Land's Laura Paskus why he believes time spent in a school library is just as important as any other class subject.
Peter Simonson, the outgoing executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico, sits down for a two-part conversation with Executive Producer Jeff Proctor as he looks back at his career protecting civil liberties for the last 24 years.
NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) on Friday, Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 22 at 7 a.m. and streaming on the PBS video app.
NMiF Segments
Protecting NM Civil Liberties for the Last Two Decades
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guest
Peter Simonson, executive director, ACLU - New Mexico
Descendent & Advocate Respond to Boarding School Apology
Correspondent
Antonia Gonzales
Guests
Dr. Joannie Suina, Ed.D. (Pueblo of Cochiti), NABS, Center for the Futures of Native Peoples
Gerilyn Tolino (Diné), Carlisle Indian School Descendent
Two Decades of Change at the ACLU of New Mexico
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guest
Peter Simonson, executive director, ACLU - New Mexico
Sixth Grader Protests School's Slashed Library Time
Correspondent
Laura Paskus
Guest
Rainier Long, Student, Carlos Gilbert Elementary
Host
Lou DiVizio
New Mexico in Focus is the New Mexico PBS prime-time news magazine show covering the events, issues, and people shaping life in New Mexico and the Southwest. NMiF takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic health, education, and art issues and explores them in-depth with a critical eye to give them context beyond the "news of the moment."
NMPBS Executive Producer, Public Affairs, is Jeff Proctor. New Mexico in Focus's senior producer for public affairs is Lou DiVizio. “Our Land” Senior Producer is Laura Paskus. The producer of New Mexico in Focus is Antonio Sanchez, and co-producer is Kathy Wimmer.
Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by the McCune Charitable Foundation and Viewers Like You.
Funding for the Your New Mexico Government Project comes from the Thornburg Foundation and New Mexico Local News Fund.
The Neeper Natural History Programming Fund for KNME-TV provides funding for Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present & Future.