Deftly negotiating between Hispano, Anglo, and American Indian worlds throughout her life, Adelina Isabel Emilia Luna Otero was born on October 23, 1881 on her family’s hacienda near Los Lunas, New Mexico.

The Otero family were wealthy and politically powerful in the Rio Abajo (Lower River) region of what is now New Mexico. The family of her mother, Eloisa Luna Otero, were descended from some of the earliest colonists in New Mexico; the family of her father, Manuel B. Otero, traced his lineage to the Spanish occupation of the area in the 1700s. As a child, she was known as Adelina Otero; as an adult, friends and family called her Nina.

Once railroads arrived in the region in 1881, white immigrants (known as Anglos) began traveling west in large numbers, actively displacing the Native American, Spanish, and Mexican populations who were already there (though the Spanish had already displaced many of the Indigenous people of the area). When Nina was not quite two years old, her father was shot and killed by an Anglo squatter who had moved on to the family’s land. A few years later, in 1886, her mother remarried. Alfred Maurice Bergere, who had family roots in Italy, was an Englishman who immigrated to the United States when he was sixteen years old. An Anglo, he was among those who moved west, arriving in New Mexico in 1880. Nina grew up in a household of twelve children, including her two younger brothers and her nine half siblings.

All of the Bergere children were educated. Nina attended St. Vincent’s Academy in Albuquerque until she was eleven years old, when she went to St. Louis Missouri to attend Maryville College of the Sacred Heart (now Maryville University) for two more years. She returned home to her family’s hacienda when she was 13. She helped educate her siblings and contributed to the work on the family ranch -- experiences she recorded in her book, Old Spain in Our Southwest.

The family moved to Santa Fe in the New Mexico Territory when Nina was sixteen, after Alfred Bergere was hired as a judicial clerk.[1] Nina became a regular fixture in the social life of the Santa Fe elite, described as “a graceful, intelligent young woman with an indomitable disposition,” and “high spirited and independent.” She met her husband, Rawson D. Warren, in 1907. Thirty five years old, he was the commanding officer of the Fifth US Cavalry stationed at Fort Wingate, near Gallup, New Mexico.[2] Nina, who was 26 at the time, married Warren on June 25, 1908 becoming Nina Otero-Warren.  After their Santa Fe wedding, Nina and Rawson moved back to Fort Wingate. Unhappy in her marriage, Nina divorced her husband after only two years, and returned to Santa Fe.

Since divorce was strongly frowned upon in both Anglo and Hispano cultures, Nina described herself as a widow, and kept Otero-Warren as her last name. She became active in New Mexico politics, and worked towards women’s suffrage. In 1912 she moved to New York City to keep house for her younger half-brother, Luna Bergere, who was studying at Columbia University. While in New York City, Nina volunteered at a settlement house in the city.[3] When Nina’s mother died in 1914, she -- the eldest daughter -- moved back to Santa Fe, and as was expected of her, took over the household duties, which she took up as well as her activist work. Her suffrage work caught the attention of Alice Paul, who tapped Nina in 1917 to head the New Mexico chapter of the Congressional Union (precursor to the National Woman’s Party). Paul and other suffragists had realized that the support of Hispano’s in New Mexico was crucial to winning suffrage; Nina was an ideal choice. She insisted that suffrage literature be published in both English and Spanish, in order to reach the widest audience.

Nina certainly had enough family money that she did not have to work. And yet, in 1918, while still working for suffrage and taking care of her family, Otero-Warren took the job as Superintendent of Public Schools in Santa Fe County -- a job she held until 1929, working to improve the conditions in rural Hispano and Native American communities. During this time, the federal government was pressuring for assimilation of non-whites, including Native American and Hispano people, into white America. This assimilation meant loss of traditional language, customs, and often family ties. As Superintendent of Public Schools, Nina worked to balance the demands of the federal government and her pride in her Spanish cultural heritage. For example, she argued that both Spanish and English be allowed in schools, despite the federal mandate of English-only. For a few years beginning in 1923, she was also appointed Santa Fe County’s Inspector of Indian Schools. She was angered by what she observed in the schools, and criticized the federal government’s Indian school system for the terrible conditions she observed.
 
In 1921, Otero-Warren ran for federal office, campaigning to be the Republican Party nominee for New Mexico to the US House of Representatives. She won the nomination, but lost the election by less than nine percent. She remained politically and socially active, and served as the Chairman of New Mexico’s Board of Health; an executive board member of the American Red Cross; and director of an adult literacy program in New Mexico for the Works Projects Administration.

Throughout her life, Nina was known both for her proper, mannered expectations of others and her unconventional personal life. Nina never remarried or had children of her own, but served as “La Nina” or godmother to her siblings, nieces and nephews, and arguably to her community. In the early 1930s, she and her partner Mamie Meadors  -- whom she had met in the 1920s -- homesteaded, establishing a ranch called “Las Dos” (The Two Women) twelve miles outside of Santa Fe. They paid $67.40 for two homestead applications, and agreed to spend an average of five months a year living on their homestead, and to improve the land by building two houses, fencing the property (1,257 acres), cultivating the land, and maintaining the road for five years. Meeting these homesteading requirements, spelled out in the Homesteading Act of 1862, meant that they received title to the land. In 1947, Nina and Mamie established a real estate and insurance company, also called “Las Dos” in Santa Fe. When Mamie died in 1951, Nina continued running the business until her death. Whether their relationship was intimate is unknown, but they lived and worked together for over twenty years. Later in life, Nina was as a “regular annual apparition” at Santa Fe’s Hysterical/Historical parade with openly-gay poet, Witter Bynner.
 
It was in the 1930s that Nina took to writing. In May 1931, she wrote “My People” for an issue of Survey Graphic with the theme of “Mexicans in Our Midst: Newest and Oldest Settlers of the Southwest.” Other contributors to this issue included D.H. Lawrence, Ansel Adams, Diego Rivera, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Her book, Old Spain in Our Southwest was published in 1936.

Nina died on January 3, 1965 in the Santa Fe home she grew up in. She had been administering the property after the death of her brother two years’ prior.

The National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/
Notes:
[1] New Mexico did not become a state until 1910. The Alfred M. Bergere House, 135 Grant Ave, Santa Fe, New Mexico was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 1975.

[2] Fort Wingate Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 26, 1978.

[3] Settlement houses were established by middle-class women in low-income urban areas. Settlement workers would live in the houses, with the goal of sharing knowledge and culture with their working class and poor neighbors. Settlement houses provided services like education, daycare, and health care for the communities in which they were located. One of the best known settlement houses in America was Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago.

Sources:
Historic Santa Fe Foundation. “A.M. Bergere House,” Historic Santa Fe Foundation.

Las Dos, New Mexico. “The Homestead Legacy: Luna Bergere Otero Family.”

Las Dos, New Mexico. “Las Dos: Two Women Homesteaders.”

Massmann, Ann M. “Adelina ‘Nina’ Otero-Warren: A Spanish-American Cultural Broker.” Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 42, no. 4 (2000): 877-896.

Morningstar, Amadea. “Nina Otero-Warren: A Graceful Non-Conformist.” The Santa Fe New Mexican, August 20, 1995.

New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative. “Nina Otero-Warren.”

Ybarra, Priscilla Solis. “Nina Otero,” New Mexico History.

Often called the “Angel of the Rockies,” Clara Brown reflects the richness of the African-American experience. She faced enormous challenges and reached wonderful heights in her nearly eighty-five years. Turning her back on her life in slavery, she looked west for the children she had lost. She then became one of the first African-American women to settle in Colorado. Clara was skillful in business ventures and investments that earned her thousands of dollars. She also gained a reputation for community care. She helped people of all races, but she worked especially hard to bring black people out of poverty and enslavement.

Enslaved

 Clara Brown was probably born into slavery in Virginia around 1800.  Wealthy white southerners who “owned” Clara often auctioned her to the highest bidder as if she were a horse to be sold.  Each time she was bought, she would have to move, sometimes even to a different state.   Clara married when she was eighteen, and later gave birth to four children.  Tragically, all of her children and her husband were sold to different people across the country. She vowed to work for the rest of her life to reunite her shattered family.

Clara worked as a domestic servant until 1856 when her “owner” at the time, George Brown, died.  Fortunately, his family helped Clara achieve her freedom, and she could begin the search for her missing children.

 Heading West

Hearing that one of her daughters, Eliza, may have moved to the West, Clara headed in that direction.  She had money to travel, but black people at the time were forbidden from buying stagecoach tickets.  Instead, she convinced a group of prospectors to take her with them.  On their way to Colorado in search of gold, she would work as their cook. The journey was long and rough and Clara had to walk alongside the wagon for much of the nearly 700-mile trek.

 Once in Denver, Clara was unable to find her daughter. She decided to travel with gold seekers to Central City in the summer of 1859.  The town was made up of gold mines, small stores, saloons, and shacks for miners and their families.  Clara was one of the first African-American women to reach the gold-mining towns of Colorado.

Making Strides

Clara’s two most important goals were to make enough money to live independently and to find her family. She figured that accomplishing the first goal would help her with the second.  Clara started by opening a small laundry service for the gold miners of Central City.  The business was very successful, and she began saving her money.  To make even more, she cooked, cleaned, and catered special engagements. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, when most black people were just gaining their legal freedom, Clara had saved ten thousand dollars.  This was an astonishing amount of money.  With this wealth, she invested in mining claims and Colorado real estate. She could now support herself very well.

 A Hub of the Community

 Like most of the small black population of Colorado, “Aunt” Clara saw the importance of living within a strong community.  In Central City, her business and her home became community hubs. Sick or injured miners, regardless of race, would often turn to her for help.  Clara gave them a place to recover and cared for them until they were able to return to work. She also helped those who were homeless and needed a place to stay.  Pregnant women in town often wanted Clara to help deliver their babies. She provided many of these services for free to those who could not afford them.

Clara Brown was a Presbyterian, but she did not discriminate against other faiths. She gave money and time to four different churches in town.  As she had done in Denver, she also helped start the first Sunday school program in town. She used her home as the classroom.  While her faith was strong and her finances secure, Clara was still missing something…her family.

Searching for Her Family

 Once she had saved enough money, Clara Brown began the hunt for her family.  She traveled to Kentucky and Tennessee in search of her loved ones.  Though she did not find her children or husband, she did not return empty-handed. Clara discovered other relatives on her trip, and she paid for them to move to Colorado.  She also helped other freed blacks to move here for many years.  When they arrived, she helped them find jobs in their new home.

In 1879, Clara acted as an official representative of Colorado Governor Pitkin to Kansas.  Many black people had escaped from the South and moved to black homesteads in Kansas.  This was sometimes called the “Black Exodus,” and these people were called “Exodusters.”  Governor Pitkin sent Clara Brown to Kansas to try to persuade some of them to move to Colorado.  Many jobs were available in Colorado due to mining strikes and labor shortages.  Clara delivered Governor Pitkin’s invitation and donated some of her own money to support the new black communities.

In spite of all her successes, disaster was just around the corner.  In 1864, a great flood swept through Denver and destroyed much of the town. The papers proving that Clara Brown owned property there were lost. In 1873, Clara’s home and several of her other properties went up in flames in a huge fire in Central City. Clara now had nothing to show for all her years of work, but people in the community came to her rescue. Someone even set her up in a cottage in Denver.

Triumph of Love

 In 1882, when Clara was about 80 years old, good news brought fresh hope of finding her daughter. She received word that a black woman named Eliza lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This woman was born about the same time as Clara’s child, Eliza. She had been taken from her mother and sold to another family, and she even looked a bit like Clara. With money from her friends, “Aunt” Clara immediately traveled to Iowa to find out if this person could indeed be her Eliza. They met in Iowa, and the two joyfully discovered that they were in fact mother and daughter!  The story of their reunion was widely published in newspapers in Colorado and throughout the Midwest. After forty-seven years of separation and searching, Clara’s dream had finally come true. Eliza was the only child Clara ever found, and the two returned to Colorado where they lived until Clara’s death.

 Immortalized

 “Aunt” Clara Brown passed away in her sleep just three years after being reunited with her daughter.  Crowds flocked to her funeral.  The mayor of Denver and the governor of Colorado even attended the ceremony. The Colorado Pioneer Association made Clara Brown their first African-American member, and funded her entire funeral.  Clara Brown’s name and reputation have lived on in the years since her death.  A chair in the Central City Opera House was installed in her name in the 1930s. This is an honor reserved for well-respected community members. In 1977, Clara’s life and achievements were commemorated with a stained glass portrait of her in the state capitol building. She also has a plaque on the St. James Methodist Church in Central City, which explains that her home served as the first church in the area. An opera about her life, called Gabriel’s Daughter, debuted in Central City in 2003.

 People say that Clara Brown went from being a slave to being an angel, but neither word is accurate.  She was an experienced black woman who lived with purpose and passion. She recognized the power of community and in building relationships. She found her way out of a life of enslavement to establish a new life in Colorado.  Her success in business gave her the chance to share her wealth with friends and family.  She worked to develop the black community in Colorado.  The discovery of her daughter, Eliza, turned her lifelong dream into reality. In her own time of crisis, favors and kindness were lovingly returned to her.

 

 BY SHANTI ZAID, Colorado Historical Society, Clara Brown intern

https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2017/aunt_clars_brown.pdf

 

 Inducted in the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1987.

 

Further Reading

 Baker, Roger. Clara: An Ex-slave in Gold Rush Colorado. Central City: Black Hawk Publishing Co., 2003.

Bruyn, Kathleen. “Aunt” Clara Brown: Story of a Black Pioneer. Boulder: Pruett Publishing Co., 1970.

 Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, et al (eds.) Perseverance. African Americans: Voices of Triumph Series. TimeLife Custom Publishing, 1993.

 Lowery, Linda. Aunt Clara Brown: Official Pioneer. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1999.

Lowery, Linda. The Story of Aunt Clara Brown. New York: Random House, 2002.