Statehood Matters, by Michael Stevenson
On Tuesday, November 7, 1911 many citizens of the Territory of New Mexico did something they had never done before - they elected their Governor.
Why was this such a significant act?
Although New Mexicans had already seen 97 governors come and go, these had all been selected by outsiders, beginning with the first Spanish governor in 1598, then the first Mexican Governor in 1822 (after Mexican independence in 1821).
From 1847 on, New Mexico's Governors were United States Military and Territorial Governors. Many of these appointed governors were well-meaning and competent. Some were neither. Few had roots in or knowledge of the land when they began governing it.
The statewide 1911 election was itself preceded by approval of a Congressional resolution promising statehood to New Mexico. The 1911 election also included choosing two United States Congressional Representatives and a new state legislature (which when convened in 1912 elected two US Senators).
Statehood did matter. New Mexicans had been involved in a struggle to achieve statehood since the American takeover in 1846. The long debate about why the Territory should become one of the United States invoked a great deal of negativism towards New Mexico and its citizens.
Throughout this difficult period, New Mexicans steadfastly asserted the antiquity of their history, their pride in their cultural identity, and their rightful and unique place in this nation.
The statewide 1911 election was itself preceded by approval of a Congressional resolution promising statehood to New Mexico. The 1911 election also included choosing two United States Congressional Representatives and a new state legislature (which when convened in 1912 elected two US Senators).
While many New Mexicans assumed the full responsibility of choosing their own state and national leaders through the ballot box as of November 7, 1911, not all New Mexicans had the privilege of voting. It was not until 1920 that New Mexico's women were able to vote (outside of school board elections, which they were enabled to vote in). Indian tribal members could not vote until1948.
According to an excited Albuquerque Morning Journal on November 9, 1911, this election produced in "avalanche of ballots" which sounded the "knell of gang rule."
However it is perhaps the poet Luis Tafoya, who in his January poem ("To New Mexico") best expressed the feelings of New Mexicans at the time regarding the significance of statehood:
Your people for three centuries, isolated and lonely...
Sealing with their blood their dominion and possession
After such heroic effort finally you deserve
The goodness with such an insistence you procure
To be admitted in the state of the union
With the sovereignty that is a free man's enchantment.
Statehood would be achieved for New Mexico on January 6, 1912. Achieving self-governance and an identity as an integral part of the United States was exhilarating in 1911 and in 1912 - and it should remain so today.
Michael Stevenson is the Director of the Historical Society of New Mexico
