Hispanic American politician, suffragist, and writer Nina Otero-Warren.
Credit: Library of Congress

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas.

Many women have paved the way for women’s rights without much recognition. This year, the United States Mint has decided to honor notable women who made a difference in the United States. Soon you might see Nina Otero-Warren’s face on a quarter with the phrase “Voto para la mujer” which means “votes for women.” Otero-Warren was a Hispanic American politician, suffragist, and writer. A suffragist is a supporter of voting rights, particularly the right of women to vote. Otero-Warren was one of the first women to hold government office in New Mexico. She became the first woman from New Mexico and the first Hispanic woman to run for U.S. Congress. Otero-Warren was a leader of the woman suffrage movement in New Mexico.

Maria Adelina Isabel Emilia Otero was born on Oct. 23, 1881, in Los Lunas, south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was known as Adelina Otero as a child. As an adult, she was called Nina. She was the second child of Manuel Basilio Otero and Eloisa Luna Otero. Her parents descended from Spanish settlers. The Oteros and Lunas were both wealthy, controlling a large amount of land in the area during her childhood. Her father was fatally shot in a land dispute before she turned two. Her mother remarried in 1886 to Alfred Maurice Bergere. Bergere was an English businessman of Italian descent. Nina attended St. Vincent’s Academy, a Catholic grade school in Albuquerque, until she was 11 years old. She attended Maryville College of the Sacred Heart, in St. Louis, Missouri, for two years. When she was 13 years old, Nina returned to live with her family. The Bergere family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, when she was 16 years old.

In 1908, Otero married U.S. Army officer Rawson Warren. The two remained married for a brief time before she divorced him. Divorce was not widely accepted at the time, and she continued to use the name Otero-Warren, claiming to be a widow.

Otero-Warren joined the suffrage movement and became a leader in the Congressional Union (later the National Woman’s Party) in 1917. She advised printing suffrage literature in both English and Spanish to help win New Mexico’s ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. Otero-Warren served as the first woman superintendent of public schools for Santa Fe County, from 1918 to 1929. She also worked for the American Red Cross, New Mexico State Council of Defense in the First Judicial District, New Mexico’s Republican women’s organization, and as inspector of Indian Services for the Department of the Interior. Otero-Warren was an advocate for bilingual and multicultural education at a time when English was the only language allowed in schools for Hispanic and Indigenous (native) children.

In 1922, Otero-Warren ran as the Republican Party nominee to represent New Mexico in the U.S. House of Representatives. She lost the election. Otero-Warren continued to work for the Board of Health, the Red Cross, and various literacy programs.

In the early 1930’s, Otero-Warren applied for a homestead outside Santa Fe with her partner, the American suffragist Mamie Meadors. They named the homestead Las Dos, meaning The Two Women. Otero-Warren and Meadors worked on the homestead building houses, maintaining roads, and fencing the property. They received the title for the land after five years, under the Homestead Act of 1862. Otero-Warren continued working the land after Meadors died in 1951.

Otero-Warren began writing in the 1930’s. Her article “My People” was published in the magazine Survey Graphic in 1931. She wrote a book, Old Spain in Our Southwest, published in 1936. Otero-Warren died on Jan. 3, 1965.

U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters Program 2022 quarters.
Credit: US Mint

Check your change for some new faces! The United States Mint has released the first of the American Women Quarters Program. The program will feature prominent women in American history. The mint is a place where coins are made. In the United States and most other countries, only the government may mint (manufacture) money. American mints are supervised by the United States Mint, a division of the Department of the Treasury. Mints now operate in Denver, Colorado; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Francisco, California; and West Point, N.Y. They make only coins.

The first five women featured on quarters will be the poet and scholar Maya Angelou, the first American woman in space Dr. Sally Ride, the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and activist Wilma Mankiller, the Hispanic suffragist and politician Nina Otero-Warren, and the trailblazing Asian American actress Anna May Wong.

On the other side of the quarter will be George Washington facing right, a design made by Laura Gardin Fraser. Fraser’s design was submitted for the 1932 commemorative quarter for George Washington’s 200th birthday. However, the treasury secretary chose a different design by John Flannigan.

The mint began shipping quarters featuring Maya Angelou on Jan. 10, 2022. Angelou was an American writer who drew from the Black American storytelling tradition. She wove humor, wisdom, and folk sayings into her writing. Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She spent much of her early life in Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou was best known for her series of autobiographical writings, especially I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). It tells about the author’s childhood in the segregated rural South and her transition to urban life. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, in 2011. Angelou died on May 28, 2014.

Make sure to keep an eye out for these legendary women in your pocket change. The mint will be releasing more quarters in the American Women Quarters program through 2025.