University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-11-2013 Americanization, Language Policy, and the Promise of Education: Public School Formation and Educational Attainment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona, 1880-1942 Carlos Francisco Parra Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Recommended Citation Parra, Carlos Francisco. "Americanization, Language Policy, and the Promise of Education: Public School Formation and Educational Attainment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona, 1880-1942." (2013). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/ 61 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Carlos Francisco Parra Candidate History Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: Linda B. Hall, Chairperson Cathleen Cahill Samuel Truett i AMERICANIZATION, LANGUAGE POLICY, AND THE PROMISE OF EDUCATION: PUBLIC SCHOOL FORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT IN ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, AND NOGALES, ARIZONA, 1880-1942 by CARLOS FRANCISCO PARRA B.A., SECONDARY EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, 2009 M.A., HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO, 2013 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2013 DEDICATION Dedico ésta tesis de maestría a mis queridos abuelos, Francisca Bojórquez Saldívar y Francisco Saldívar Ruíz. Mi nana y tata han sido mi Estrella Polar a través de mis experiencias académicas y siguen siendo la fuente de mi inspiración profesional. Además de mis abuelos, dedico esta obra a mis padres, la Dra. María Atanasia Saldívar Parra y Carlos Parra, Jr., y a mi hermana Krystal Alexis Parra, quienes han sido mi más fuerte apoyo durante toda esta experiencia. Que la paz de Dios Todopoderoso los bendiga y proteja hoy y siempre. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank numerous individuals for their assistance in helping me craft this study on the sociocultural history of Hispanic youth and their teachers in Nogales and Albuquerque during the late 1800s and early 1900s. I would like to thank my committee members Professor Samuel Truett, Professor Cathleen Cahill, and my chair, Professor Linda Hall, for their dedication to helping me research, write, and revise my thesis investigation. Throughout all of my adventures in collecting the information for my study, my committee members were always my strongest supporters. My committee members built upon the foundation that my undergraduate mentors Dr. Kevin Gosner, Dr. Lydia Otero, Dr. Jadwiga Pieper-Mooney, and Dr. Katherine Morrissey established during my time at the University of Arizona when I initially began this research in the spring of 2009 under the auspices of the UA Ronald E. McNair Achievement Program. The high expectations that my advisors and mentors have held for me over the years have served to make my work as effective as possible, as well as to help me better develop into a scholar. I am also thankful for the help that Ms. Teresa Leal of the Pimeria Alta Historical Society in Nogales and the staff of the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson gave me during my long research hours. Additionally I am grateful for the assistance provided to me by the staff of the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records (ASLAPR) in Phoenix and the University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research. Finally, but not at all least, I am profoundly thankful for the unconditional support of my mother María, my father Carlos, my sister Krystal, and my abuelos. My family has been my iv inspiration and my motivation throughout all of my adventures in building this work – without them none of this would have been possible or worthwhile. v Americanization, Language Policy, and the Promise of Education: Public School Formation and Educational Attainment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona, 1880-1942 By Carlos Francisco Parra B.A., Secondary Education, University of Arizona, 2009 M.A., History, University of New Mexico, 2013 ABSTRACT This study analyzes the nature of identity formation discourses and processes in terms of race, gender, citizenship, and educational attainment at the turn of the twentieth century in the communities of Nogales, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. This study articulates the labyrinthine nature of the lived experiences of Hispanics with respect to how externally-imposed ideas of social interaction manifested themselves in these borderlands communities. One of the themes of this work is the analysis of the role of early public schools in their effort to create a cohesive identity among their diverse students. In this analysis significant questions relating to identity come to the forefront. For example, how similar were the social interactions among different groups in these border towns with respect to the social interactions in other contemporary cities in vi the U.S. Southwest region? What types of nationalist discourses accompanied the formation of early schools in Nogales and throughout the greater borderlands region? The effects of these discourses on the educational attainment of Hispanic students in Nogales and Albuquerque are examined and reveal low levels of high school graduation among Hispanic students when these graduation rates are compared to demographic statistics in their two cities. This study explains the sociohistorical context of the formation of these cities’ public schools in addition to exploring how Americanization shaped the educational attainment of Hispanic students therein from the 1890s until the early 1940s. This study also comments on the overall contradictions of the intercultural exchanges seen throughout the greater U.S.-Mexico borderlands region. Many complex factors played a role in the educational outcomes of the students considered in this investigation, but the Americanization rhetoric reflected in school pedagogies (and the general absence of Hispanic educators/role models) helped bring about the low educational attainment of Hispanic students. This study primarily relies on primary source documents, including oral histories, available through archival sources in Nogales and Albuquerque, as well as elsewhere in Arizona and New Mexico. This study seeks to contribute to the discussion of the history of the education and citizenship identity of Mexican Americans in the borderlands. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 – Introduction Historical Problem of Identity Formation in the Borderlands 1 Methodology 7 Chapter 2 – Sociopolitical Context of Americanization and Cultural Assimilation in Arizona and New Mexico During the Latter 1800s Introduction 10 Experiences With Education in New Mexico and Arizona Prior to 1880 12 Important Events Affecting Education in Arizona and Nogales 1860-1890 34 Conclusion 46 Chapter 3: Cultural Politics, Gender, and Educational Attainment in an Arizona-Sonora Border Town Community: Nogales 1880-1942 Introduction 48 Turn of the Century Historical Context and Background 51 Conditions of Early Schools in Nogales, Arizona 56 Nogales Students and Educational Attainment: Results of Americanization 69 Gender and Cultural Roles of Nogales Teachers 84 viii Conclusion 90 Chapter 4 – Culture in Early Albuquerque Public Schools: Language Policy, Americanization, Educational Attainment, and Teachers 1879-1942 Introduction 95 The Albuquerque Academy 1879-1891 97 Students and Educational Attainment in the Albuquerque Public Schools 1891-1942 113 The Social Position of Teachers in APS and in the North-Central New Mexico Region 130 Conclusion 144 Chapter 5 – Study Conclusions Review of Main Questions 149 Forming the Institution of Public Schools in Arizona and New Mexico 153 Americanization in the Public Schools of Nogales and Albuquerque 155 Gender and Culture Among Teachers 160 Final Conclusion 163 Bibliography 167 ix Chapter 1 – Introduction Historical Problem of Identity Formation in the Borderlands In her celebrated book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldúa wrote, “Like all people, we perceive the version of reality that our culture communicates.” Elaborating further, she wrote “Like others having or living in more than one culture, we get multiple, often opposing messages. The coming together of two self- consistent but habitually incomparable frames of reference causes un choque, a cultural collision.”1 Anzaldúa’s quote vividly captures the ambiguities, dualities, and contradictions that define life in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Writing as a native of the U.S.-Mexico zona fronteriza, Anzaldúa’s articulation of the problems that border residents (particularly Mexican Americans) face when constructing their identity speaks to the historical questions that necessarily emerge when one analyzes the histories of the borderlands. Speaking of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in a broad sense, one may see the larger geographic zone where the different sociocultural norms and expectations of the peoples of the United States and Mexico come into choque as the de-facto borderlands of cross- cultural interchange. Depending on the period one is discussing, the zone of choque may move from point to point in a rather fluid style, though within the transnational