The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

 


Media Contacts: Laurie Mellas, 277-5915
Sari Krosinsky, 277-5813

April 12, 2006

UNM Law Professor to Discuss Racial Dynamics
Traces Impact of 19th Century on 21st Century New Mexico

The 2005-2007 Keleher & McLeod Professor, Laura Gómez, will present "The First White Man Our People Saw Was a Black Man: Racial Dynamics in 19th Century New Mexico” at 4 p.m., Tuesday, April 25, at the University of New Mexico School of Law, room 2401.

The lecture, sponsored by the UNM School of Law, presents work included in a book-length manuscript that is under advance contract with New York University Press. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Gómez will discuss New Mexico 's unique racial context, involving relations among Indians, Mexicans and Euro-Americans, against the backdrop of larger national developments in 19th century American history.

The lecture will focus on American colonization and the ideology of white supremacy as it was applied to justify expansion south and west under the rubric of "Manifest Destiny." Gómez will argue that the early decades of the American occupation of New Mexico (1850-1890) produced a racial order in which white supremacy coexisted with Mexicans' and Pueblo Indians' inclusion in the American legal and political systems.

She will reflect on the links between this racial order, the national debate over admitting New Mexico as a state, and the 20th and 21st century racial order in New Mexico .

This is Gómez's first year teaching at UNM. Her position is endowed by the Keleher & McLeod law firm, more than half of whose attorneys are graduates of the UNM School of Law. She previously taught at UCLA for 11 years.

 


The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.

www.unm.edu