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Western New Mexico University has recently been awarded a grant of $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support ¡Fiesta Latina!, the university’s signature cultural event. This highly competitive grant is one of only twenty given to New Mexico art organizations during this most recent round of funding. Director of Cultural Affairs Alexandra Tager said that while ¡Fiesta Latina! has received NEA funding before, this is the largest grant received from the organization. ¡Fiesta Latina!, which this year is scheduled for June 6-9, is a celebration of New Mexico’s ties to Mexico. “The purpose of it is essentially to promote cross-cultural exchange,” said Tager. Each year, she and her team host dozens of folk artisans from Mexico who share their techniques and showcase their works. Some of the artisans will give demonstrations or lectures, and others will lead workshops in which they guide children and adults in their craft. The festival also includes...

Music and nursing may seem like very different disciplines to most people, but for WNMU student and Hurley native Keana Huerta, they are very much entwined. Her decision to pursue a career in nursing was influenced by her family’s experience. “When my grandmother was sick in the hospital,” said Huerta, “I came to see her, and I sang her a song. brings light to a part of someone’s health journey that they otherwise might not have had.” Music therapy has been part of healthcare for a long time, said Huerta. “When people are at a very vulnerable time, sometimes they just need that light,” she said, “and for me as for many other people, music is just that.” Music is such an important part of Huerta’s life that she has been working hard to develop time management strategies to juggle being both a full-time college student and a professional musician. “With school and with music, I really had to learn how to balance stuff,” she said. But finding time...

Across the country, museums are covering up their display cases and removing objects from exhibition. New York’s American Museum of Natural History has shut down two entire wings, and closer to home, the Western New Mexico University Museum has been moving a number of Mimbres cultural items into storage. These removals, however, are not the latest attempt to ban cultural materials; rather, they are designed to comply with recent changes to the rules governing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). NAGPRA, which originally passed in 1990, requires institutions that receive federal funding to repatriate Indigenous human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants or culturally affiliated tribes. “What the law is saying,” explained WNMU Museum Director Danielle Romero, “is that all cultural items cannot be accessed, researched or displayed without tribal permission funerary, anything that...

Two Western New Mexico University students will be honored as “Outstanding Students of the Year” during the New Mexico legislative session. Rose Le and Antonio Jimenez have been invited to a press conference for Adult Education and Literacy Day in conjunction with Higher Education Day. Both students are enrolled in the Adult Education Program at WNMU and Le has also studied with Literacy Link – Leamos, which nominated her for the honor. Jimenez was nominated by WNMU. Le is originally from Vietnam and has been working on her English language skills with tutors Kristina Kenegos and Jay Devyldere. She is now studying toward her high school equivalency at WNMU. Kenegos said, “Rose appreciates learning and is an inspiration in her ability to handle a full-time job, raise a daughter and work toward a higher level of study at the same time.” Le credits her tutors for her achievement. “I couldn't achieve the Outstanding Student without them,” she said, adding, “I'm so...

Entries may be poetry or prose with the following limits: Poetry - one entry of 1-3 poems Prose - one entry of fiction or creative non-fiction up to five pages Submit your entries by February 23, 2023, including a two sentence bio written in the third person, to creativewriting@wnmu.edu or heather.frankland@wnmu.edu. Winners, announced this spring, will receive awards and be published in The...

The New Mexico Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Education of WNMU was recently awarded a $50,000 Community Investment Fund grant from the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation. The grant money will be matched by the university and will be used to establish a therapeutic preschool classroom at the Childhood Development Center. A therapeutic classroom is one that is designed to facilitate programs that develop children’s foundational cognitive capacities that underpin all later development, including academic achievement. According to Christina Riddle, Program Director of the WNMU Family Counseling Center, the new classroom will be distinguished by its small class size and staffed by teachers and therapists with special training that has prepared them for the role. The idea for the therapeutic preschool classroom, said Riddle, was “born out of a need that we have identified especially over the last several years.” Citing the pandemic and a world of shifting stressors for...

WNMU is requesting $15,000,000 from the NM Legislature to help the university achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. At present, the greatest source of renewable energy at WNMU is PNM’s Community Solar Direct program, which draws electricity from a solar farm in northern New Mexico. The university also draws power from photovoltaic solar panels located near the Fine Arts Center Theatre and the WNMU Museum, and the university plans to install additional solar carports as well as freestanding photovoltaic panels. According to the WNMU Campus Master Plan, the “best source of energy is produced right at the point of use. Therefore, onsite renewable energy generation systems are paramount for reducing carbon emissions in the most efficient method possible.” In addition to increasing the production of solar energy, carbon neutrality will also require that WNMU improve existing power and water systems to make them more efficient. The university has already taken...

The Western New Mexico University Undergraduate Creative Writing Contest is calling for poetry and prose entries from undergraduate students at WNMU. Poetry entries should include 1-3 poems. Prose entries can be either fiction or creative non-fiction and should be a maximum of 5 pages. Entrants must include a two-sentence biographical statement written in the third person. Submit entries by February 23, 2024 to creativewriting@wnmu.edu or heather.frankland@wnmu.edu. Winners will be announced and awarded prizes this spring and will be published in a forthcoming edition of The...

Silver City native Ethan Sanchez did not always know that he would become a welder. “I started the CNA program. I wanted to be a nurse first of all,” he explained. Once he entered into direct care, though, he realized that it was not for him. While looking for an alternative career path, Sanchez met James Ortiz, Director of Community and Workforce Development at WNMU, who suggested he consider welding. “I tried it, and I fell in love with it,” said Sanchez. He noted that creativity and job security were the main reasons he was so attracted to welding. “You can always put your own touch to it,” he said, “I like to make personal.” He also enjoys having a career that will always be in demand and pays well. Since completing his welding certificate at WNMU in 2023, Sanchez has been working for a local construction company and has been surprised by where his new career has taken him. Most recently, he traveled to the San Diego area for a project, and he will soon...