Basic Information

Maria Adeline Emiila Otero-Warren was born in Los Lunas on October 23, 1881. Otero-Warren took on many different roles as she was an educator, politician, and suffragist (Martinez, 2019).  She helped secure women’s right to vote by getting the vote ratified in New Mexico (Whaley, 2008, pp. 85-88). She was also one of New Mexico’s first female government officials when she took the position of Santa Fe Superintendent of Instruction. As well as the first female Mexican American to run for the US House of Representatives as a republican in 1922 (Martinez, 2019).

Background Information

Otero-Warren was born into two aristocratic Spanish New Mexican Families. Otero-Warren’s family owned a vast sheep ranch known as the Rio Abajo region of New Mexico. Her parents had three kids together, Eduardo (1880-1932), Adeline (1881-1965), and Manuel (1880-1963) (Massmann, 2000). Otero-Warren’s father died in a land grant dispute because in 1883 James and Joel Whitney brought a portion of the land grant that challenged the other land grant holders. They arrived at the Estancia Ranch where Pablo Baca was living on the Otero family’s land as a ranch hand. They planned to tell them that the New Mexican Supreme Court had settle in their favor and made themselves comfortable in the house. Once Otero-Warren’s father was alerted to their presence he came to confront them. He demanded that they prove their claim, but they shot and killed him when the argument became heated.  In 1884, Otero-Warren’s mother remarried Alfred M. Bergere, he was of Italian and French descent who had migrated to New Mexico from England. They continued to live on the sheep ranch; Otero-Warren remembered her time on the ranch fondly. In 1892, when Otero-Warren was 11 years old, she attended Maryville College of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis. Hispanic Families had been sending their children to be educated in St. Louis for many years, especially since the opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1825 connected New Mexico with St. Louis (Cahill, 2020).

At 26 years old, she met First Lieutenant Rawson D. Warren at a party in 1907. She knew early on that she wanted to marry him, and they did on June 25, 1908 (Whaley, 2008, pp. 54-57). Being an army office wife was hard for her, she missed her large family and friends. On top of this, she felt both bored and stifled by the rigid social expectations that came with her husband’s rank. In addition to her unhappiness with the army ways, she wanted a more equal marriage where she and her husband were companions and they weren’t. However, the final straw for her was when Warren had a common-law partner and two children in the Philippines at the time of their marriage. She decided that she was going to leave him when they were married for less than two years (Cahill, 2020). Otero-Warren would never refer to herself as divorced, but always as a widow. This is because it was looked down upon for both elite Hispanic and English Victorian standards in the early 20th century (Massmann,2000). She also kept her last name as Otero-Warren because it would help counteract the racist people, she had to deal with compared to if she just had her last name just be Otero (Whaley, 2008, p. 55).

In 1912, she moved to New York City, to help keep a house for her younger brother, Luna Bergere, who was attending Columbia University. However, she didn’t want to just be a housekeeper, which is partly why she volunteered at Anne Morgan’s settlement. This was an important social welfare experiment that provided welfare for the young and working class women. She moved back to Santa Fe because of the death of her mother (Massmann, 2000). Her mother died from heart failure after suffering from a heart attack. After this, she ended up staying in Santa Fe to help around the house and her younger siblings.  It seems that working in the settlement house caused her to become even more socially aware and wanted to be involved in helping women because women still lacked many different basic rights at this time (Whaley, 2008, pp. 65-69).

Contributions to the First Wave

In 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) under the leadership of Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw had helped to get the right for women to vote in 12 states and territories. This encouraged Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and other members of the Congressional Union (CU) to use the voting powers of the newly enfranchised women to force a suffrage resolution through the United States Congress. Even though a lot of activism was done for women’s suffrage in western states before 1900, there was no organized movement in New Mexico. By 1914, it was the only western state that denied women the right to vote. At this time, Otero-Warren belonged to the influential National Association of Women’s Club. She and the other members of the association saw that peaceful and steady pressure was not working, and they decided to take matters into their own hands. Otero-Warren joined forces with the CU and they launched a new campaign (Whaley, 2008, pp. 71-73). 

In 1915, they launched their first campaign in New Mexico. The CU tried to work with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, but they later become discouraged with their efforts. As a result, they turn to the powerful English women in Santa Fe (Whaley, 2008, p. 75). The new recruits soon established a state network of suffragists who planned mass meetings, parades, teas, and dinners. They also bombarded Senators Catron and Fall with the demand to vote. To do this, they picked 6 key Hispanic women, including Otero-Warren. She tried to use persuasive arguments urging women to participate in the fight to vote. They also sent a steady stream of vocal women to the state representatives in Santa Fe and Washington. Catron remained unmoved by these efforts and even introduced an anti-suffrage statement to Congress. However, thankfully in 1916, Catron was not renominated. Frank Hubbell, who was pro-suffrage, was elected over Catron (Whaley, 2008, p. 78). On top of this, Otero-Warren had a positive effect on the New Mexico legislators in Washington. In New Mexico, the movement gained two champions at the federal level who were Senator Anderius Aristiens Jones and William Walton. They agreed to consider the passage after receiving urgent calls and letters from Otero-Warren. However, on March 1, 1917, state legislators turned down the measure. After this, Alice Paul was impressed with Otero-Warren’s work and ask her to join the CU advisory council as vice president. Otero-Warren afterward sent delegates of women to lobby the congressmen. This was not only to vote for the amendment but to work in every way for the amendment (Whaley, 2008, pp. 80-82).

The 19th amendment was passed by the U.S congress in June 1919. At this point, it was up to the states to ratify the amendment. Otero-Warren worked tirelessly to lobby Hispanic legislators; the suffrage sailed through the New Mexico House of Representative in January 1919. Yet to the surprise of the voting public, it failed in the Senate and was shelved for unpopular and impassable legislation. Discouraged by the loss, Otero-Warren still persisted to make her message heard by the men in power. Letters and telegrams jammed the lines between Washington and Santa Fe as she reported to Alice Paul to receive both instruction and encouragement. On the last day before the New Mexico final vote, she had gained admission to the Republican caucus, becoming the first woman in the state ever to participate (Whaley, 2008, p. 85-88). To try and get the amendment ratified at the legislative session, she locked the republican party delegates in a room for three hours at the caucus to make sure it passed (Ruíz & Korrol, 2006). On February 19, 1920, New Mexico become the 32nd to approve the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote (Whaley, 2008, p. 89). A year later, Otero-Warren championed a bill in New Mexico allowing women to hold office (Ruíz & Korrol, 2006).

Otero-Warren was also the Santa Fe Superintendent of Instruction from 1917 to 1929. In this time, she helped search for better teachers and encourage more public involvement and cooperation for the school. She also lobbied for the renovation of the school that was in terrible condition. As well as proposing to lengthen the school to 9 months, an addition of 2 to 6 months depending on the region  (Whaley, 2008, p. 101). Also, during this in 1922, she ran for the US House of Representatives. In her campaign, she stressed the importance of her Mexican-American family heritage. Newspaper around the country picked up on her candidacy and ran stories on her life (Massmann,2000). Her campaign was then shaken when her cousin Miguel revealed that she was divorced and not a widow. If this was known before, she would have not gotten the nomination. However, because of the revelation, she lost the nomination by less than 10,000 votes. However, she continued to be a force in local politics. She was later appointed director of literacy education for the state-directed Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and director of the Works Progress Administration Program (Ruíz & Korrol, 2006).

“I will take a stand firm one whenever necessary, for I am with you now and always”

~ Adeline Otero-Warren, 1917 (Whaley, 2008, p. 81-82)

Analysis and Conclusion

Adeline Otero-Warren was an extremely outspoken, brave, and assertive woman that even though she faced challenges due to her gender and race she was still able to prevail. Being a woman, it was expected of her to be content with being a mother, wife, and nothing more; this isn’t what she wanted for her life. She spent a brief period of her life, as an army wife and found that it was quite restraining, and she didn’t get along with the other wives. She also was someone who wanted a marriage where both of them were equal and they were companions, hers wasn’t. Instead, she spent the majority of her adult life helping others in several different ways. As a suffragist, she was highly focused on the movement and was going to do what it took to get the amendment ratified. She was not going to back down; this is not how she operated which was a strength of hers. On top of this, she was also a hard-worker that was quite persuasive. This proved to be another strength for her when she advocated for the 19th amendment. With this, she was able to convince various different people to either vote in favor of the 19th amendment or to help advocate for it. She had the historic achievements of becoming the first Mexican American female to get nominated and run for the US House of Representative. As well as to gain admission to the Republican caucus. As an educator, she was dedicated to making life better by both improving the schools conditions; as well as giving more resources to the teachers, and overall tried to make the school be smoothly run. Otero-Warren had a great impact on history and should be remembered and celebrated for her work.

References

Bain News Service, P. (1923) Adelina Otero-Warren. , 1923. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2014716277/.

Cahill, C. (2020). Recasting the vote : How women of color transformed the suffrage movement. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

Martinez, S. (2019). Otero-Warren, Adelina “Nina” (1881–1965). Latinos in the American Political System : An Encyclopedia of Latinos as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders: N-Z, 389-390.

Massmann, A. M. (2000). Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren: A SpanishAmerican Cultural Broker. Journal of the Southwest, 42(4), 877-896.

Otero-Warren, Adelina (1881–1965). (2006). Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia, 2, 549-551.

Ruíz V. L., & Korrol V. S.(2006). Latinas in the United States: a historica encyclopedia. Indiana University Press Press.

Whaley, C. (2008). Nina Otero-Warren of Santa Fe. Sunstone Press.