LULAC Council 8105 Civil Rights and Social Justice Conference Highlights

LULAC Council 8105 hosted a summit and conference on Civil Rights and Social Justice on Saturday at the Tays Center. The all day event ran from 8 am to 7 pm with a multitude of booths, workshops and speakers and a day full of discussion and education. A diverse crowd attended with attendees from Western Texas and throughout New Mexico.

The State LULAC Director, Fred Baca of Silver City and District 2 LULA Director Richard Garcia, attended and commented that Alamogordo's Council 8105 was the first in the State to organize a program to address Civil Rights and Social Justice. Quite an accomplishment for a council that is less than a year old. 

Dr. Orizco urged that the community and the local chapter find ways to engage the youth. She commented that LULAC gets action and more councils form when racism rears its ugly head.  She suggested a revisit to the Dudley School History Archive Project and ensure the Hispanic community is well represented in the storboard development. A point was made that Hispanic history has not been well documented and rold in New Mexixo. She is the 13th Hispanic historian in the state. LULAC began in New Mexico soon after it did in Texas in the 1930s. 

Curator Marrufo presented on his work of the The Chihuahua Hill Story in Silver City New Mexico preserves history through an oral and picture history presentations. He believes that we must know local Hispanic history. Chihuahua Hill was the segregated area of Silver where Marrufo's parents lived in an Adobe home with no infrastructure. The home is shown as a comparison to the large territorial style homes in the all white areas of Silver City - a part of the presentation discussed. He noted that the people were proud and happy and persevered. There also was a school that stripped the Spanish language from kids in Silver. Today, the building houses Head start preschool. He urged that a professional historian be approached to write Alamogordo's Hispanic stories. 

A table discussion was moderated by Otero County LULAC Council #8105 President Joann Chavez Vullo.

Topics included renaming the Dudley Community Center and making it an after-school and language center to help students with studies and bring back the culture lost through the segregation period of Alamogordo history.

Samuel Torres stated that he knows many old students that agrees the building should be preserved and registered as a historical site. 

Many commented of forming a Committee to present to the city and Tularosa Basin Historical Society, of which the Board has little diversity in its leadership.

Cleo Armendariz who attended the Maryland School for Mexican children in 1946, 47 was able to tell her story and was recorded, she said that Mrs Dudley was a Principal and her teacher hit her hands for speaking Spanish. Her mother told Mrs. Dudley that if they hit her again there would be hell to pay. Many parents feared confronting teachers for the abuse because they wanted their children to go to school suggestss the speaker.

.Sofia Ugarte of NMSU-A Title 5 program addressed the need for housing as students cannot learn when they don't have a place to live.

Miss America New Mexico, Emillie Enriquez, 23 gave a very articulate suggestion that we need to find ways to get youth involved in LULAC by making events they will participate in.

The keynote was presented by Southwest Regional Council Fatima Menendez of San Antonio, TX. She is the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants. She pursued law because her father was discriminated against in the workplace. She addressed workers rights and stresssd that although there are policies and trainings, these may not be institutional protections and often times policies need to be reviewed.

Ms. Menendez was in New Orleans last week assisting in presenting oral argument on behalf of DACA defendents to the 5th Circuit Appellate Court. She said T the conference that they await the decision, and she is sure it will go before the Supreme Court of the USA. Menendez mentioned she had reviewed the Elijah Hadley incident, in which an Otero County Deputy Sheriff shot and killed a 17 year old Mescalero Apache youth, and she met with participants after dinner.

Another participant discussed privately the rights of the incarcerated. Fatima urged all to vote! She mentioned that voters' rights are being challenged and MALDEF IS DEFENDING LULAC in Texas.

The long day concluded with participants that had engaged in much discussion and dialogue. 

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