DAR, Alma d’arte celebrates Mesilla Valley women

The first female licensed embalmer in New Mexico, who paid special attention to the babies. The blind musician who composed New Mexico’s state song. New Mexico State University’s first Black graduate who attended class in hallways. A restaurauteur who hauled 2,100 pounds of red and green chile to Washington, D.C., and served it to Congress.

These are a few examples of the Las Cruces women being celebrated by Alma d’arte Charter High School and the Doña Ana Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

 Alma and DAR have teamed up to celebrate, remember and thank the women of Doña Ana County who helped shape Las Cruces into the city it is today.

Dubbed “New Mexico Heroines of the Past, Present and Future,” the collaboration culminated April 15, when Alma students and staff and DAR members invited the public to celebrate the DAR Women in American History.

Alma culinary students provided baked goods they made using Maggie Gamboa’s cookbook. A Women in American History quilt created by DAR and Alma students and staff hung in the space for viewing. Five of this year’s Women in American History spoke at the event, including Alma founder Irene Oliver Lewis, nationally renowned author Denise Chavez, Doña Ana County Historical Society member Sally Kading, longtime Las Cruces business owner Wanda Bowman and Barbara Hubbard, 95, and an icon of Las Cruces music and entertainment.

When DAR members approached her to collaborate on making their Women in American History legacies live on, she was intrigued, said Alma arts integration specialist Stephanie Preciado-Shelton.

“I read the stories about the women,” she said, “and I thought it was an interesting idea to connect visual art and the accomplishments of these innovative citizens. We don’t see storytelling very often at Alma, and stories are important teaching tools.

DAR members read Women in American History stories aloud to Alma students as part of the partnership. As a result, Preciado-Shelton suggested making a quilt, with students and DAR members choosing 26 Doña Ana County women to include, representing 150 years of Mesilla Valley history.

“The quilt is a charming way to remember our Women in American History,” said DAR regent Linda Bartlett. “Our idea began as our National Day of Service project to preserve American history, promote patriotism and secure America's future through better education for children. We realized that our local women’s incredible accomplishments and lives were being forgotten over time. We wondered how to ensure the stories were not forgotten and thought of expressing them in a visual way.”

DAR members and Alma staff and students also teamed up to sort through and categorize books in the Alma library, including books donated by DAR.

DAR Women in History include Alice Branigan, Mary Cuniffe, Laura Eppelsheimer Frenger, Elizabeth Garrett, Sally Kading, Alice Cuniffe, Ann Keough Nelson, Anna B. Cuniffe, Clara Belle Williams, Opal Lee Priestley, Mary Bernard “Mamie” Aguirre, Ina Mae Sousea Ance, Magdalena “Maggie” Lucero Gamboa, Rosemary Leyva, Maria Gutierrez Spencer, Carol Hardy Walker, Frances Williams, Silvia Acevedo, Denise Chavez, Barbara Hubbard, Wanda Bowman, Irene Oliver Lewis and Della Kilcrease. 

Mary Lee Bailey Shelton is the Vice President of the Doña Ana Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.