Nina Otero-Warren/Courtesy photo

COUNTY NEWS RELEASE

Educator, early feminist, public welfare director, politician,  author, and businesswoman – Nina Otero-Warren was all of these and more. She was  recently recognized nationally as one of the significant women who contributed to the  advancement of the nation and will be depicted on the US quarter dollar coin by the federal  mint. Her story will be presented by Deborah Blanche in a Chautauqua program on Thursday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m., streaming by Zoom. You are warmly invited to  attend this presentation sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos, the Los  Alamos Historical Society, and Los Alamos Public Library. Register on the library event  calendar: https://laconm.libcal.com/event/8078774 

This event coincides with the Los Alamos League of Women Voters exhibit Women’s Votes,  Voters’ Voices, which is showing in the Step Up Gallery at Mesa Public Library until  Sept. 21.

“Perhaps Nina is best remembered for her influential role in securing  the passage of the women’s suffrage amendment by the New Mexico legislature,” says Blanche, a veteran Chautauquan, who has written and performed Chautauqua style  dramatization programs for the New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC) since 1985.  “Nina was an ardent feminist from the early school of the nineteen-teens when political and  social reforms were part of the progressive philosophy of the times. Nina was very artful at  living a life of self-determination while still walking the well-defined lines of her class and  society.”  

The Chautauqua program format is one in which a historical person’s life is researched  thoroughly; then presented to the public as a dramatization by the scholar/performer.  Blanche’s presentation will be like a short play, with space allowed for the audience to interact with the character informally in a question-and-answer dialogue.  Deborah Blanche has been creating one-woman shows, storytelling, and Chautauqua  programs since the mid-‘70’s after studying original theatre in England. She lives in San Miguel County near Las Vegas, NM, and her entire repertoire can be seen on http://www.palomitaproductions.org.