A Short History of “Los
Conquistadores” of Arizona State
University - Tempe
Conquistadores” of Arizona State
University - Tempe
“We used to joke about the name of the organization. We thought it was
kind of pretentious to be associated with Spaniards when our parents or
grandparents were born in Mexico and our fathers did pick-and-shovel work
in the mines. Just because we spoke Spanish didn’t mean we were
Spaniards. We were Mexican Americans. What we wanted to do was
emphasize that we were Americans first, and of Mexican descent, second.
We were proud to be of Mexican descent, yes. But we were born in the
United States, not Mexico.”
kind of pretentious to be associated with Spaniards when our parents or
grandparents were born in Mexico and our fathers did pick-and-shovel work
in the mines. Just because we spoke Spanish didn’t mean we were
Spaniards. We were Mexican Americans. What we wanted to do was
emphasize that we were Americans first, and of Mexican descent, second.
We were proud to be of Mexican descent, yes. But we were born in the
United States, not Mexico.”
Dr. Christine Marin Curator/Archivist and Historian of the
Chicano Research Collection, Department of Archives andd
Special Collections, Hayden Library, Arizona State University
E-mail: Christine.Marin@asu.edu
Chicano Research Collection, Department of Archives andd
Special Collections, Hayden Library, Arizona State University
E-mail: Christine.Marin@asu.edu
| Photographs courtesy of University Archives Collection. Department of Archives and Special Collections. Hayden Library. ASU Tempe. |
| ADVERTISEMENT |
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Photographs:
1. Mexican Youth
Conference; Pacific
Palisades; 1942.
Date: April 1942
2. Los Conquistadores
Breakfast; N.D.
3. Conquistadores
Girls Again. N.D.
4. Los Conquistadores
Tempe CafeScrapbook
1935/36 and 1945/46
130.9 C26
1. Mexican Youth
Conference; Pacific
Palisades; 1942.
Date: April 1942
2. Los Conquistadores
Breakfast; N.D.
3. Conquistadores
Girls Again. N.D.
4. Los Conquistadores
Tempe CafeScrapbook
1935/36 and 1945/46
130.9 C26
4
Tempe, Arizona, June 8, 2009 - The club Charles Bejarano of Miami,
Arizona spoke about is called “Los Conquistadores”, the first Mexican
American student organization formed at Arizona State Teachers College
in Tempe in 1937. Charles and his brother, Arthur, along with many other
students in the 1950s, sought to re-create a “home town feeling” within
their campus so that members could work together to help others
become successful in school.
“We knew that our parents gave us opportunities to become college
educated,” Charles said, “and we didn’t want to disappoint them. I
suppose we were their American Dream. We had dreams too.”
Bejarano’s desire to maintain a bilingual-bicultural connection to his dual
heritage, and to take the best characteristics from both cultures, Mexican
and American, was a shared desire among students who belonged to
“Los Conquistadores” in the decade of the 1950s. It was the same
desire shared by members of “Los Conquistadores” in the 1930s and the
1940s.
The Conquistadores’ claim to this duality of cultures, however, was not
evident in 1917, the year a precursor group was founded. It was known
then as the “Spanish Club”, and it boasted a membership of twenty-five
students, none of whom were Mexican nor of Spanish heritage; nor were
they particularly fluent in the Spanish language. They were Anglo-
American students who studied the Spanish language as part of their
curriculum. Such courses were popular at the Tempe Normal School in
the early 20th century because of their commercial value. In fact,
Spanish courses were offered to Tempe Normal students as early as
1907. It made practical sense for these future teachers to acquire
Spanish language skills and to use them in Arizona’s territorial schools,
where “fifty percent of the school age children in the Territory spoke
Spanish” in 1906. To underscore this growing statistic, Apache County
School Superintendent Alfred Ruiz stated his opinion that the territorial
Normal School had a responsibility to train and to prepare bilingual
teachers for these Spanish-speaking students. When Arizona reached
statehood in 1912, its school age population grew from 17,716 to
42,318, and along with it, so did teachers’ pay.
With goals of wanting “to further the ability of speaking Spanish and to
arouse sympathetic interest in the Spanish and Latin-American peoples,”
the Spanish Club members practiced their language skills by presenting
Spanish dramas to campus audiences during the formative years of 1917-
1922. In the 1923-24 school, a new advisor, Dr. Irma Wilson, changed
the group’s name from the Spanish Club to Los Hidalgos del Desierto, or
“The Lords of the Desert.”
Dr. Irma Wilson came to teach Spanish at the Tempe Normal School in
1922 and retired from Arizona State University in 1966 after forty-four
years of teaching. She also served as Head of the Spanish Department;
student advisor to foreign language campus organizations, including
“Los Conquistadores”, and was known as the “First Lady of the ASU
Faculty.” She was also known for her kindness and generosity towards
her students. For example, she paid for students’ school supplies and
purchased eye glasses for some members of “Los Conquistadores”
when they could not afford them.
In the early 1920s, Los Hidalgos del Desierto attracted new members,
Mexican American students: Raphael Carlos Estrada; Adam Celaya;
Richard Curiel; Nellie Martinez; Adela Loroña, and Helen Bracamonte,
among others. The club members met at Dr. Wilson’s home, near the
campus, and she often spoke to them about her travels to Spain and
Mexico.
By 1934, Mexican American students at Arizona State Teachers College
began supporting political issues advanced by the southern California
group of college students who were active in the “Mexican American
Movement”, or MAM. The group held their first student conference in San
Pedro, California in that same year, 1934. Felix J. Gutierrez, journalism
major at Pasadena Junior College, was among the students at the
conference. The students in MAM wanted to work together with other
Mexican American students in the southwest to improve the socio-
economic conditions of Mexican families, and to call attention to the
racism and discrimination they experienced in their communities.
Education would be their tool to eliminate despair. And so MAM adopted
the motto, “Progress Through Education.” It became the rallying cry for
MAM’s efforts to unite Mexican American college students in California,
Arizona and Texas colleges and universities.
Among the college students who brought MAM’s ideology from California
to Arizona in the late 1930s and the early 1940s and to Arizona State
Teachers College were the Muñoz siblings: Rosalio; Rebecca; Lucinda;
Elizabeth; and Josephine. The Muñoz siblings and others, who were
already members of Los Hidalgos, knew the only way they could become
part of MAM’s growing community efforts and participate in their own
student conferences and work on community issues, such as poverty
and discrimination against Mexicanos in Phoenix, was to break away
from Los Hidalgos and form their own student organization. They spoke
with Dr. Wilson about their concerns and asked her to serve as their
student advisor. And she said yes. After some discussion, they all agreed
to call this new Mexican American student organization, “Los
Conquistadores.” On October 1, 1937, they followed academic
procedures and wrote to the Arizona State Teachers College Committee
On Organizations and asked permission to form a club for Mexican
American students. One reason behind their requests was “to interest
others in a college education, especially those of our own nationality.”
Rosalio Muñoz and his sister, Josephine, agreed to assist the Preamble
Committee, made up by Hilario T. Alvarado from Miami, Arizona and Tony
Vicente from Jerome, Arizona. It was their responsibility to compose the
fundamental laws and principles of their new group. By the end of the
Fall semester, 1937, they had drawn up their official Constitution, which
included the Preamble and the Articles which spelled out the purposes,
duties, and responsibilities of Los Conquistadores. The new club was
added to the list of campus organizations at Arizona State Teachers
College. The 1937 Preamble of Los Conquistadores read:
“We, the Spanish-Speaking Students of Arizona State College at Tempe, in
order to develop a better understanding between ourselves and others; to
gain greater social, cultural, and intellectual values through our association
with others; to interest others in a college education, especially those of our
own nationality, do hereby organize this club. The name of this club shall be
“Los Conquistadores.” Said club shall exist on the campus of Arizona State
College at Tempe.”
To begin their work, Los Conquistadores formed the “Endowment Fund
Committee,” headed by Rosalio Muñoz, Edmundo Valdez, and Hilario T.
Alvarado. The committee was charged with seeking financial
contributions from citizens throughout the state to support Los
Conquistadores in their efforts. The money raised was used to help
financially strapped Mexican American high school and college students
to go to the college of their choice. Funds raised were divided into two
ways: one half of the money was used by Los Conquistadores to help
students in the Phoenix area; and the other half was shared among
Phoenix Junior College, Arizona State College in Flagstaff, and the
University of Arizona in Tucson to help students in those areas.
In 1939, Los Conquistadores hosted a Mexican American Youth
Conference at Arizona State Teachers College on December 2-3. Their
conference theme, “Progress Through Education,” was not lost on the
Mexican Consul from Phoenix, Morelos Gonzales, whose address to
conference participants emphasized the educational opportunities that
Arizona’s schools had to offer to the Mexican American community in
Arizona.
The Arizona conference was a success, and it sparked the energies and
the enthusiasm of Los Conquistadores. They participated in the Mexican
Youth Conference held at an Army and Navy building in San Pedro,
California in March, 1940, the site of the first youth conference in 1934.
And Los Conquistadores held their second statewide Mexican Youth
Conference at ASTC in November, 1940 and their third annual conference
in December 6-7, 1941. While at the conference, students learned about
the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The wartime years saw the commitment
made by Los Conquistadores to serve their country, as military service
took away many of the men in the club. Some of them were Honorato
Manriquez; Gilbert Orrantia; Orlando Loera; Fred Saucedo; Ray Flores;
and Hilario Alvarado. Killed in action were Orlando Loera, from Miami,
Arizona and Fred Saucedo, from Globe, Arizona. With the men away, the
women of Los Conquistadores shared home-front duties and kept the
club active and financially solid.
Marguerite Sanchez joined Los Conquistadores in 1939 and lived in
Tempe while she attended ASTC. She was elected as the club’s
Secretary in 1940 and remained in that office until 1943. That was the
year she was elected as President of Los Conquistadores, the first
woman to hold that office. Marguerite Sanchez, a Senior in 1943, joined
the WAACS and served her country well. Sara Carrillo replaced her as
President of Los Conquistadores in the Fall of 1943. Officers included
Frances Ybarra, Vice-President; Marie Corrales, Secretary; Martha
Navarrette, Treasurer; Margarite Rojas, Publicity Manager; and Toni
Montero, Sergeant-at-Arms.
When the war ended, Mexican American students continued to remain
active in Los Conquistadores and worked to serve their communities by
raising funds to establish financial aid scholarships for young Mexican
American high school students. Their record of commitment and public
service from 1937 to the end of the war in 1945 served as stepping
stones for others in the 1950s to follow. Members had a sense of ethnic
pride as Mexican Americans; yet, they also held a pride in their identity
as Americans. This G.I. generation of Los Conquistadores, those who
served from 1937 to 1945, established a legacy of hard work and
accomplishment, all of which served as examples for the next generation
of the 1950s to follow. As Charles Bejarano, a graduate of Miami High
School and a new member of Los Conquistadores in 1951 said:
“We knew that our parents gave us opportunities to become college
educated, and we didn’t want to disappoint them. I suppose we were their
American Dream. We had dreams too.”
The members of Los Conquistadores, the men and women, celebrated
their 14th Annual Reunion at the Holiday Inn in Tempe, just a block away
from their beloved campus of Arizona State University. We should thank
them for their courage and their service to their Mexican American
communities and for living their motto: “Progress Through Education.”
Copyright © 2006 by Christine Marin
Arizona spoke about is called “Los Conquistadores”, the first Mexican
American student organization formed at Arizona State Teachers College
in Tempe in 1937. Charles and his brother, Arthur, along with many other
students in the 1950s, sought to re-create a “home town feeling” within
their campus so that members could work together to help others
become successful in school.
“We knew that our parents gave us opportunities to become college
educated,” Charles said, “and we didn’t want to disappoint them. I
suppose we were their American Dream. We had dreams too.”
Bejarano’s desire to maintain a bilingual-bicultural connection to his dual
heritage, and to take the best characteristics from both cultures, Mexican
and American, was a shared desire among students who belonged to
“Los Conquistadores” in the decade of the 1950s. It was the same
desire shared by members of “Los Conquistadores” in the 1930s and the
1940s.
The Conquistadores’ claim to this duality of cultures, however, was not
evident in 1917, the year a precursor group was founded. It was known
then as the “Spanish Club”, and it boasted a membership of twenty-five
students, none of whom were Mexican nor of Spanish heritage; nor were
they particularly fluent in the Spanish language. They were Anglo-
American students who studied the Spanish language as part of their
curriculum. Such courses were popular at the Tempe Normal School in
the early 20th century because of their commercial value. In fact,
Spanish courses were offered to Tempe Normal students as early as
1907. It made practical sense for these future teachers to acquire
Spanish language skills and to use them in Arizona’s territorial schools,
where “fifty percent of the school age children in the Territory spoke
Spanish” in 1906. To underscore this growing statistic, Apache County
School Superintendent Alfred Ruiz stated his opinion that the territorial
Normal School had a responsibility to train and to prepare bilingual
teachers for these Spanish-speaking students. When Arizona reached
statehood in 1912, its school age population grew from 17,716 to
42,318, and along with it, so did teachers’ pay.
With goals of wanting “to further the ability of speaking Spanish and to
arouse sympathetic interest in the Spanish and Latin-American peoples,”
the Spanish Club members practiced their language skills by presenting
Spanish dramas to campus audiences during the formative years of 1917-
1922. In the 1923-24 school, a new advisor, Dr. Irma Wilson, changed
the group’s name from the Spanish Club to Los Hidalgos del Desierto, or
“The Lords of the Desert.”
Dr. Irma Wilson came to teach Spanish at the Tempe Normal School in
1922 and retired from Arizona State University in 1966 after forty-four
years of teaching. She also served as Head of the Spanish Department;
student advisor to foreign language campus organizations, including
“Los Conquistadores”, and was known as the “First Lady of the ASU
Faculty.” She was also known for her kindness and generosity towards
her students. For example, she paid for students’ school supplies and
purchased eye glasses for some members of “Los Conquistadores”
when they could not afford them.
In the early 1920s, Los Hidalgos del Desierto attracted new members,
Mexican American students: Raphael Carlos Estrada; Adam Celaya;
Richard Curiel; Nellie Martinez; Adela Loroña, and Helen Bracamonte,
among others. The club members met at Dr. Wilson’s home, near the
campus, and she often spoke to them about her travels to Spain and
Mexico.
By 1934, Mexican American students at Arizona State Teachers College
began supporting political issues advanced by the southern California
group of college students who were active in the “Mexican American
Movement”, or MAM. The group held their first student conference in San
Pedro, California in that same year, 1934. Felix J. Gutierrez, journalism
major at Pasadena Junior College, was among the students at the
conference. The students in MAM wanted to work together with other
Mexican American students in the southwest to improve the socio-
economic conditions of Mexican families, and to call attention to the
racism and discrimination they experienced in their communities.
Education would be their tool to eliminate despair. And so MAM adopted
the motto, “Progress Through Education.” It became the rallying cry for
MAM’s efforts to unite Mexican American college students in California,
Arizona and Texas colleges and universities.
Among the college students who brought MAM’s ideology from California
to Arizona in the late 1930s and the early 1940s and to Arizona State
Teachers College were the Muñoz siblings: Rosalio; Rebecca; Lucinda;
Elizabeth; and Josephine. The Muñoz siblings and others, who were
already members of Los Hidalgos, knew the only way they could become
part of MAM’s growing community efforts and participate in their own
student conferences and work on community issues, such as poverty
and discrimination against Mexicanos in Phoenix, was to break away
from Los Hidalgos and form their own student organization. They spoke
with Dr. Wilson about their concerns and asked her to serve as their
student advisor. And she said yes. After some discussion, they all agreed
to call this new Mexican American student organization, “Los
Conquistadores.” On October 1, 1937, they followed academic
procedures and wrote to the Arizona State Teachers College Committee
On Organizations and asked permission to form a club for Mexican
American students. One reason behind their requests was “to interest
others in a college education, especially those of our own nationality.”
Rosalio Muñoz and his sister, Josephine, agreed to assist the Preamble
Committee, made up by Hilario T. Alvarado from Miami, Arizona and Tony
Vicente from Jerome, Arizona. It was their responsibility to compose the
fundamental laws and principles of their new group. By the end of the
Fall semester, 1937, they had drawn up their official Constitution, which
included the Preamble and the Articles which spelled out the purposes,
duties, and responsibilities of Los Conquistadores. The new club was
added to the list of campus organizations at Arizona State Teachers
College. The 1937 Preamble of Los Conquistadores read:
“We, the Spanish-Speaking Students of Arizona State College at Tempe, in
order to develop a better understanding between ourselves and others; to
gain greater social, cultural, and intellectual values through our association
with others; to interest others in a college education, especially those of our
own nationality, do hereby organize this club. The name of this club shall be
“Los Conquistadores.” Said club shall exist on the campus of Arizona State
College at Tempe.”
To begin their work, Los Conquistadores formed the “Endowment Fund
Committee,” headed by Rosalio Muñoz, Edmundo Valdez, and Hilario T.
Alvarado. The committee was charged with seeking financial
contributions from citizens throughout the state to support Los
Conquistadores in their efforts. The money raised was used to help
financially strapped Mexican American high school and college students
to go to the college of their choice. Funds raised were divided into two
ways: one half of the money was used by Los Conquistadores to help
students in the Phoenix area; and the other half was shared among
Phoenix Junior College, Arizona State College in Flagstaff, and the
University of Arizona in Tucson to help students in those areas.
In 1939, Los Conquistadores hosted a Mexican American Youth
Conference at Arizona State Teachers College on December 2-3. Their
conference theme, “Progress Through Education,” was not lost on the
Mexican Consul from Phoenix, Morelos Gonzales, whose address to
conference participants emphasized the educational opportunities that
Arizona’s schools had to offer to the Mexican American community in
Arizona.
The Arizona conference was a success, and it sparked the energies and
the enthusiasm of Los Conquistadores. They participated in the Mexican
Youth Conference held at an Army and Navy building in San Pedro,
California in March, 1940, the site of the first youth conference in 1934.
And Los Conquistadores held their second statewide Mexican Youth
Conference at ASTC in November, 1940 and their third annual conference
in December 6-7, 1941. While at the conference, students learned about
the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The wartime years saw the commitment
made by Los Conquistadores to serve their country, as military service
took away many of the men in the club. Some of them were Honorato
Manriquez; Gilbert Orrantia; Orlando Loera; Fred Saucedo; Ray Flores;
and Hilario Alvarado. Killed in action were Orlando Loera, from Miami,
Arizona and Fred Saucedo, from Globe, Arizona. With the men away, the
women of Los Conquistadores shared home-front duties and kept the
club active and financially solid.
Marguerite Sanchez joined Los Conquistadores in 1939 and lived in
Tempe while she attended ASTC. She was elected as the club’s
Secretary in 1940 and remained in that office until 1943. That was the
year she was elected as President of Los Conquistadores, the first
woman to hold that office. Marguerite Sanchez, a Senior in 1943, joined
the WAACS and served her country well. Sara Carrillo replaced her as
President of Los Conquistadores in the Fall of 1943. Officers included
Frances Ybarra, Vice-President; Marie Corrales, Secretary; Martha
Navarrette, Treasurer; Margarite Rojas, Publicity Manager; and Toni
Montero, Sergeant-at-Arms.
When the war ended, Mexican American students continued to remain
active in Los Conquistadores and worked to serve their communities by
raising funds to establish financial aid scholarships for young Mexican
American high school students. Their record of commitment and public
service from 1937 to the end of the war in 1945 served as stepping
stones for others in the 1950s to follow. Members had a sense of ethnic
pride as Mexican Americans; yet, they also held a pride in their identity
as Americans. This G.I. generation of Los Conquistadores, those who
served from 1937 to 1945, established a legacy of hard work and
accomplishment, all of which served as examples for the next generation
of the 1950s to follow. As Charles Bejarano, a graduate of Miami High
School and a new member of Los Conquistadores in 1951 said:
“We knew that our parents gave us opportunities to become college
educated, and we didn’t want to disappoint them. I suppose we were their
American Dream. We had dreams too.”
The members of Los Conquistadores, the men and women, celebrated
their 14th Annual Reunion at the Holiday Inn in Tempe, just a block away
from their beloved campus of Arizona State University. We should thank
them for their courage and their service to their Mexican American
communities and for living their motto: “Progress Through Education.”
Copyright © 2006 by Christine Marin
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Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues in Phoenix, Arizona
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