From Normal School to New Horizons

El Rito is where it all began for Northern New Mexico College. Northern’s educational mission has played an integral role in the State of New Mexico’s goal to provide educational opportunities for its residents since its founding as the Spanish American Normal School at El Rito on September 21, 1909. The New Mexico Territorial Legislature established the school to train teachers for the State’s Spanish-speaking population, making it the first Hispanic-serving institution in the United States – long before that was an official designation.

The New Mexico Constitution identified the Spanish American Normal School as one of 10 educational institutions which would be supported by the state. On May 9, 1986, Delgado Hall – one of the original structures – was entered into the New Mexico Register of Historical Places, #1257, in recognition of its historic and cultural significance.

The El Rito campus has undergone many changes in the last 100+ years, growing from a teacher training institution to a K-12 school, a vocational school, a community college and to the current Northern New Mexico College.

A Brief HIstory of the Spanish American Normal School

The most important and enduring accomplishment of the founding fathers in 1909 was the creation of the Spanish American Normal School.  The school was of the utmost significance in the history of New Mexico’s early Educational advancement.  It advantageously benefitted the educational needs of the students of Northern New Mexico for over sixty years.

Through the traverse of time, the Normal has endured a variety of social, legislative, and financial obstacles. Its founding in 1909 was hampered by territorial legislators who failed to see the needs for education of poor Hispanic children in Northern New Mexico. Its rural area was populated by Hispanic people that were descendants of early settlers from Spain, living in very small villages and their livelihood was derived from raising cattle and sheep.  The green valleys provided small streams to irrigate their gardens and pastures. They were consumed with basic survival and had little time or inclination to meander into the realm of politics.  The territorial legislators were highly influenced by the larger populated cities and the eastern part of the state.  Northern New Mexico was a rural area and its needs were diffused by the vastness of geography, the scarcity of its population and regretfully, the fact that it was mainly a poor Spanish speaking populace.

The economics of the territory were less than prosperous.  The territory lacked a cohesive government infrastructure, no real industrial base existed and notably, it lacked a  well defined system for education.  To further distract from its education mission, the territory was in the midst of battling an image of ignorance that had hampered its entrance into the union as the 47th state of the United States.  The fact that the Spanish language was the primary language spoken further hampered the entrance of the Territory of New Mexico into the Union.

Not withstanding, all these obstacles, objections and oppositional forces, the NORMAL was legislated into existence in 1909, before New Mexico had become a state.  Largely through the efforts of three men, a legislator, Colonel Venceslao Jaramillo, an El Rito native, Salomon Luna, a senior statesman from Tierra Amarilla, that became a spokesman for the preservation of the language and culture of the Hispanic people, and L. Bradford Prince, a Chamita resident.  Prince, a former territorial governor, who established the New Mexico College and university system and later was the territorial senator from Rio Arriba County. These three men understood the need for education, had a vision to fulfill the need, and exerted their influence to establish the Spanish American Normal School.

The original objective was to train students to become teachers for the local schools in Northern New Mexico. The Normal’s mission evolved through its sixty year history.  Its mission never deviated from its goal to educate and prepare students to lead fruitful and successful lives.  Its last senior graduating class was in 1969.  Sixty years after opening its doors for the first enrollment in 1909.

The school’s educational mission was moved to a campus in Espanola and is now known as Northern New Mexico College, where it continues to provide educational opportunies to students of Northern New Mexico.

— ©Ben Casados