The legacy of María Lugones
Activist and educator left lasting impression in the Taos Valley
When María Cristina Lugones passed away in Syracuse, New York, on July 14, 2020, academics and activists all over the world mourned the professor, feminist philosopher, writer and educator widely known for her work on decolonial theory.
At the time of her death, Lugones was a professor of comparative literature and women’s studies at Binghamton University in New York.
But here in Taos, she was regarded, above all, as a beloved community organizer and political activist who left a profound mark on social grassroots movements and popular education.
Many local residents remember her as instrumental in organizing with the people of Valdez, Des Montes and Arroyo Hondo in the “condo war” – a movement that opposed Jeff Cottam’s Las Arboleras condominium development in Valdez in 1982. At that time, people in the community were concerned about the condo sewage going into the water and the construction that was damaging their local irrigation system – the acequias.
“María was strongly involved in the struggle to protect our community and our waters,” said Elias Espinoza, who has worked for years with the Valdez Domestic Water Association, the acequia association and the community land grants. “We made signs at the Escuelita de Valdez and placed them along the hill and all the way to the entrance of the ski valley canyon. In a sheet, we wrote the names of all the Valdez residents using their own blood.”
Lloyd Garcia, currently a sergeant with Taos Police Department, remembers participating in the protests and boycotts and painting the signs as a child.
Reies Lopez Tijerina also came to support the Valdez residents in their struggle, who were finally able to halt the ski valley expansion into the area.
La Escuela Popular Norteña
One of Lugones’ most important contributions to popular education was the Escuela Popular Norteña, co-founded by her in 1990. The school’s guiding principle was the idea that education happens in the community, not just within formal educational settings.
The Escuela’s goal was to bring together raza people to think together about their different lives, struggles and communities, said Laura DuMond Kerr, who came to Valdez to work at the school with Lugones in 1991.
“Each summer, people from different Latino and raza communities came together to meet in la Escuelita of Valdez to get to know each other, participate in workshops and develop ideas about how to further develop work in their local communities,” she said.
The workshops included examining local economics, water and land rights, violence against Latinas, coalition and decolonial thinking.
“Her heart was here,” said DuMond Kerr, who currently works as a Spanish teacher at Taos High School. “Up until the days before she died, she was talking with people about how we could work with our youth to make their lives here, to teach each other solidarity and do our best to create new possibilities together. She had un corazón that extended deep and wide.”
Lugones was married to Taos Valley Acequia Association Director Geoff Bryce, who was also a member of Escuela Popular Norteña and participated in the “condo war.” Bryce died in a car accident in 2004. Lugones’ work eventually took her to New York, but she always kept strong ties with Valdez.
Born in Argentina, Lugones moved to the United States to attend university in the 1960s.
“María said that she considered Valdez as her ‘adopted community,’ the place where she felt most in connection in struggle with others here in the U.S.,” said Cricket Keating, a professor at the University of Washington and a longtime Escuela Popular Norteña member. “In her book ‘Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions,’ she writes about how important her ‘ compañeros de las luchas en Valdez’ were to her sense of self and to her understanding of political resistance.”
“María was always working hard to make our work relevant to local communities – people who lived in and around Valdez and Taos,” said Aurelia Flores, an early member of Escuela Popular Norteña. “She did not want to keep the broader organizing work separate from the local community, and she deeply cared about her longtime friends in Valdez. This included the children, grandchildren and broader families, and family systems, of the people she interacted with. She was committed to their well-being and worked to open possibilities for greater improvement projects for Valdez and the surrounding communities.”
Personal memories
Other neighbors have more personal memories of Lugones.
“She was very creative,” said Connie Espinoza. “For one of my kid’s birthdays, María made a huge cake. It had a lake, fisherman, a forest and a river flowing into the lake. It was so pretty that you didn’t even want to cut it! She would make Argentinian food, like a kind of cake with boiled eggs and a lot of vegetables, and chimichurri for carne asada.”
Lugones also created, in partnership with the editorial committee formed by Michael Martinez, Gustavo Gonzalez, Eduardo Lavadie, Ben Tafoya, Gustavo Garcia, Geoff Bryce and Fabi Romero, the bilingual community journal Lo Nuestro del Norte, which was published between 1986 and 1988. Many other community members contributed to the journal including Sylvia Rodriguez, Anita Rodriguez, Grace Rodriguez, Connie Espinoza, Romolo Arellano and Juanita Jaramillo. The journal contained articles about community life, interviews with community members, as well as poetry and artwork.
The Escuela Popular Norteña is currently developing a community education center for young people that aims at augmenting their school-based learning with educational programming that focuses on the history, culture, language and agriculture of the community.
“The need for this type of alternative education whose intent is to create a greater sense of security in children’s lives through a greater understanding of their cultural history is critical,” said Siena Sanderson, director of the Nurturing Centers at Taos Behavioral Health. “The well-being of our children depends on the well-being of our communities and vice versa.”
In a recent meeting, Adelia Muniz, a Valdez community member, said that the community youth education center was rooted in Lugones’ “experience in the way of life of Valdez” and her respect for the culture, the water and the agriculture of the community.