Grant Helps Preserve Amador Family Letters

"Fabian, I wish you a thousand happinesses," wrote Julieta Amador to her suitor and future husband, Fabian Garcia. Amador sent letters and postcards to Garcia while on trips to Mexico. Amador's letters were written in the early 20th century - when NMSU was known as the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

Garcia was a member of NMSU's first graduating class in 1894 and earned his doctorate in agriculture from NMSU in 1926. As director of NMSU's Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension Service from 1913 to 1945, he was the first Hispanic in the nation to lead a land-grant agricultural research station.

Amador's love letters to Garcia are part of the Amador Family Letters held by the NMSU Library's Rio Grande Historical Collections. The Library recently received a $3,000 grant to preserve more than 12,900 leaves of correspondence written and received by the Amador family from 1861 to 1945. The grant was awarded by the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Grants-In-Aid Program. The money will be used to deacidify the letters, which were written on paper with a high acid content, making them highly susceptible to embrittlement.

These postcards, written in Spanish, were sent by Julieta Amador to Fabian Garcia.

The Amador Family Letters collection contains a rich narrative of historical events in Mexico and New Mexico at the turn of the century, including details of the French invasion of Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Mexican Revolution, said Austin Hoover, NMSU archivist.

Julieta's father, Martin Amador, settled in Las Cruces after establishing a freight hauling business between Chihuahua and Santa Fe. The business provided sleeping rooms for Martin's teamsters. After the explosion of the railroad industry, Martin and his wife, Refugio Ruiz, converted the business into the Amador Hotel - now a Las Cruces landmark.

The immense collection consists of correspondence letters, greeting cards, funeral notices, invitations, condolence letters, love letters, postcards, telegrams, financial records, legal documents, speeches and even a cookbook.

The Amador Family Letters are of importance to local, national and international researchers because the collection outlines the popular culture of Mexican-Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries, Hoover said. The letters also highlight the distinctive Hispanic women's voices of Refugio Ruiz de Amador, Clotilde Isabel Amador Terrazas, Maria Amador Dequerre, Emilia Amador and other female family members and friends.

The papers were used recently by NMSU authors Joan M. Jensen and Darlis A. Miller for their book New Mexico Women: Intercultural Perspectives. Photographs from the collection have been used in videos, exhibitions and publications.

The Rio Grande Historical Collections acquires and preserves records of organizations, personal papers and other unpublished materials which document the cultural heritage and history of New Mexico and the Southwest experience. These materials are made available for research. Those interested in donating materials to the RGHC should call (505) 646-4727 or write to the Rio Grande Historical Collections, NMSU Library, MSC 3475, Box 30006, Las Cruces, N.M. 88003.

Joy Victory

Construction is well underway on NMSU's Center for Sustainable Development of Arid Lands, photographed for Aggie Panorama in July. The $22 million complex, at the northwest corner of the Horseshoe, is slated for completion in Fall 2000. The U-shaped complex will contain teaching and research laboratories, extension education facilities and faculty offices. Since construction began nearly a year ago, the College of Agriculture and Home Economics has been posting progress photos on the Web at http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/intranet/csdal/photos.html

Photo by Meghann Dallin

Alumnus makes rare find on the job

When NMSU Library Specialist John Freyermuth, '75, discovered a boxed set of children's books illustrated by Maurice Sendak, he had no idea just how rare the collection was.

After researching library databases, Freyermuth realized that the first edition set, Seven Little Stories on Big Subjects, is held by only eight other universities and sells for between $1,000 and $2,000 on Internet auction sites. The books had been designated to a "problem shelf" at Branson Hall Library because of their worn condition.The set, written by Gladys Baker Bond and illustrated by Sendak, was published in 1955 for the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.

NMSU is one of only nine universities to own a set of Seven Little Stories on Big Subjects.

Sendak is known for his Caldecott Award-winning book, Where the Wild Things Are, about a boy's attempt to defy his parents and slip into his own world of wild, roaring monsters. Sendak first began illustrating comics while in high school. Since then, he has won every major book award for children's literature.

"Sendak draws the characters and creatures to look like lovable, friendly, comical, humorous monsters and people," Freyermuth said. "The illustrations take away fear and replace it with comfort and reassurance."

Although worn, the library has no intention of altering the condition of the set.

The books can be viewed at the NMSU Library Special Collections on the second floor of the Branson Hall Library.

Joy Victory