HELP THY NEIGHBOR

In November of that year a group of men in Antonito, Colo., led by Celedonio Mondragon, organized a mutual aid society for Hispanics. One mission was to provide its unemployed members with emergency cash.

The society grew to become an important regional aid organization in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. It is known by its Spanish name – La Sociedad Protección Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos.

“It was formed in response to the modernization and industrialization of the region by way of the railroad, which opened up mineral and mining development, especially in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado,” said José A. Rivera, the author of a new book on the historical significance of La Sociedad.

“Coincident with that were the losses of land grants through public domain, the creation of national forests, establishing right of way for railroads and the illegal taking of lands by Anglo land speculators, sometimes in alliance with Hispanic elite.”

As a result, Rivera said, many displaced Hispanic farmers and ranchers – including those in the Chama and Embudo valleys – found themselves as wage workers in a new cash economy and were forced to move where the jobs were.

Rivera said La Sociedad set up programs to help Hispanic workers, many of whom were in seasonal jobs.

Besides setting up an emergency fund for laid-off workers, the society also created an unemployment insurance program, organized a revolving loan fund, which functioned much like a credit union does today, he said. It also had a fund to help families pay funeral expenses.

“They even had an employment agency. Members helped other members find employment. That was innovative,” said Rivera, a research scholar at the University of New Mexico’s Center for Regional Studies, which is attached to the Zimmerman Library.

He said La Sociedad’s social welfare programs infused its members with a cultural bond that was the source of its strength, “what they called nuestro pueblo, our people, our homeland.”

Part of that cultural bond was seen in the society using Spanish as the language in which it wrote its constitution and rules and in which it conducted its business.

Rivera said in its heyday the society had 65 local councils. La Sociedad’s headquarters are still in Antonito but there are only six councils in existence, including those in Nambe, Ranchos de Taos and in the community of Placitas near El Rito.

“A motive in writing the book was to see what we can learn in (today’s) depressed economy, with the unemployment, people losing their property, their inability to pay mortgages,” Rivera said.
José A. Rivera discusses, signs “La Sociedad” from 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at Alamosa Books, 8810 Holly NE, and gives a talk Aug. 7 at the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America’s annual meeting and conference, Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas, N.M.