"It wasn't until I'd been to France [in WW I] and came home that I realized I didn't have to vote as Don Jesús told me to"


Adapted from Erna Fergusson's book, Our Southwest.

Writing about New Mexico circa 1950, she tells of the decline of the old - time patrones of New Mexico politics, she tells us on page 70:

"They were dons, de origen noble, whose whiteness and superiority could not be questioned.

"For a couple of generations they maintained their old dominance.

"Their people had always turned to them for work, for advice, and for help.

"With citizenship, the poor man voted as his patron told him to; he could not imagine doing anything else.

"But the day of the dons is done; with general education and understanding of democracy, a new class has emerged."

I could vote as I pleased...


"Bright boys became newly aware that anybody could now aspire to political leadership, to place and power and wealth.

"They put themselves through school, or self - sacrificing families did, built up their flocks, made money, and sought such position as they had envied their old patrons.

"One said to me; It wasn't until I'd been to France and come home that I realized I didn't have to vote as Don Jesús told me to. I was as good as he was. I could vote as I pleased.

"That was in 1918; his fathers had had the right to vote since 1848..."