Ninety-four-year-old UNM alumna Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven has led a remarkable life, chronicled in a new, authorized biography by Kathryn Cordova titled, “¡Concha! Concha Ortiz y Pino: Matriarch of a 300-Year-Old New Mexico Legacy.” De Kleven and Cordova will appear at a book signing on Sunday, Dec. 12 from noon to 4 p.m. at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.
Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven attended UNM as an older student after she helped pass legislation to establish the School of Inter-American Affairs. She enrolled at the school in 1942 at the age of 32 and became its first graduate. She was also a UNM faculty wife in the 1940s and ’50s, a college dean, the third woman elected to the New Mexico Legislature at the age of 26, the first woman ever elected majority whip in a state legislature, and during her tenure, helped pass significant legislation involving public school funding, bilingual education and women’s rights.
Five U.S. presidents appointed her to national councils and commissions; she was a board member of more than 60 organizations, including one of the original members of the New Mexico Arts Commission; she was inducted into the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame; Vista magazine designated her “Latina of the Century” in 1999, and a state building at 130 South Capitol Street was named for her this past summer.
Gran Via, Inc., the Santa Fe-based publisher of the Hispanic cultural quarterly magazine La Herencia, is publishing de Kleven’s biography; La Herencia’s Editor/Publisher, Ana Pacheco, said she decided to do “this book project about Concha’s life because she is truly a state treasure, and I want her to enjoy this tribute while she is still with us.
Her family’s history is woven into the fabric of New Mexico, and she has served this state consistently and unselfishly for decades. As Governor Richardson said when he dedicated the former National Education Association building in her name last August, throughout her life Concha ‘has worked to provide opportunities for her fellow citizens, she has fought for equality for women, and she has opened many doors that previously had been closed to her gender.’”
Ms. Pacheco also said that the 200-page biography contains 170 photographs (many never published before), a foreword by Governor Richardson, a Spanish-language summary at the beginning of each chapter, and a genealogy of the Ortiz y Pino family.
Cordova is a part time instructor at the Taos and Los Alamos branches of the University of New Mexico where she helped establish an associate program in communications and journalism. She is the author of four books and has received several education and publication awards.
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920
Posted by kwentworth at December 3, 2004 12:45 PM