WNMU celebrates it 123rd birthday

Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy

Fifteen years after Silver City, New Mexico, was founded under a territorial charter in 1878, the Territory of New Mexico authorized two normal schools on February 11, 1893. They were to be built in Silver City and Las Vegas, N.M.

According to an article in the Silver City Enterprise, 1899, "This successfully culminated the efforts of many in Silver City, who had attempted for years to convince the Territorial Legislature to approve an institution of higher learning in Silver City.... A Board of Regents, appointed by Governor L. Bradford Prince, was given the task of selecting a site for the school. On June 2, 1893, the Board accepted Regent John W. Fleming's offer of 20 acres situated on a high hill west of the community. This site allowed the institution to be visible to all who came into town. On September 7, 1894, an impressive dedication ceremony was held." The military band from Fort Bayard played at the event.

The first name of the school was the New Mexico Normal School, with its mission of training teachers. In the early 1920s the name was changed to the New Mexico State Teachers' College. The school received its current name as Western New Mexico University in 1963.

WNMU Scholar-in-Resident Felipe Ortego y Gasca was the featured speaker. He gave some of his own history and "context from one of 'nos viejitos.'"

He said thousands of square miles were lopped off Mexico, including parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah, in several territorial additions to the U.S. Mexican settlers were given the option to move back to Mexico or remain in the news country.

"My mother's family, in 1773, settled in what is now Texas and stayed there," Ortego said. "My father's family moved back to Guanajuato. So essentially the Mexican-American is not an immigrant. It is in context with the diversity of the population."

A Douglas High School group, touring Western the day of the celebration and sporting purple WNMU shirts, attended the event.

WNMU President Joseph Shepard, who was wearing a pink shirt and tie, said the official color of Western was pink for a couple of years. "I am also wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is a celebration of community." He also congratulated Vice President of External Affairs Magdaleno Manzanares on it being his birthday. When everyone sang Happy Birthday to Western, Manzanares' name was added in.

According to Western Museum Director Cynthia Bettison, Fleming was mayor at the time of the creation of Western. Albert B. Fall carried the bill to the territorial legislature to create the university, with Felix Martinez adding in Las Vegas at the last minute.