A pioneer for women in politics

“My mom is the original that broke the glass ceiling in many ways,” said Laura Garcia.

Her mother is long-time educator and former State Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, who represented southern Doña Ana County in the New Mexico House of Representatives for 18 years.

With her hair and makeup done and dressed impeccably, Garcia “went out every morning to take on the world,” Laura remembers. “She’s always been one of the people who encouraged us, who told us we could do anything.”

When she was first elected to the legislature in 1996, Garcia was one of only 16 women in the New Mexico House, she said. Today, 45 of the state’s 70 House members are female, including the Democratic and Republican floor leaders and the majority whip.

“Women have discovered their voice and they are becoming more fluent with it,” said Garcia, a native of Las Cruces who lived in the same house just south of Las Cruces for the 68 years.

Garcia had encouraged fellow educator J. Paul Taylor to run for the Legislature in 1986, and when a seat opened in her district a decade later, she did the same, winning election and re-election nine times.

Serving side by side in the New Mexico House for eight years, Garcia and Taylor were both “strong voices for education,” Garcia said, and were advocates for their districts, including Sunland Park in Garcia’s District 34 and Mesilla in Taylor’s District 33.

Garcia served on House Appropriations, which was “a very, very powerful committee,” she said, that “had a lot of impact on education.”

Garcia said her most important accomplishments in the legislature also include helping get a railroad hub in Santa Teresa, legalizing the use of paper ballots in addition to voting machines (so a voter could “take all the time you want to decide” how to vote,” Garcia said) and mandating that students are able to read at grade level before they pass the third grade.

She was also an advocate for Planned Parenthood and for LGBTQ rights, Garcia said, and she supported having slot machines at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino to help boost that city’s economy.

“I’ve always been involved in politics,” said Garcia, whose uncle, Mike Apodaca (Apodaca Park is named for him), was mayor of Las Cruces 1953-55, and whose nephew is state Sen. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces.

“I got him to run,” Garcia said of Cervantes.

Another of Garcia’s uncles, Ralph Apodaca, was state superintendent of insurance, she said, and her uncle, Hooky Apodaca, was mayor of Bernalillo in the late 1940s. 

Garcia began her long career in education as a third-grade bilingual teacher in La Mesa, and taught in both the Las Cruces and Gadsden school districts. She was the first ever principal of East Picacho Elementary School, one of only three female principals in Las Cruces at the time; helped create Las Cruces Public Schools’ Bilingual Education Department; and came out of retirement to serve as principal of Booker T. Washington Elementary School.

“What I’ve learned from my mom is you can be effective without men,” Laura Garcia said. “I learned from her that anybody at any age can do anything if you set your mind to it.”