News: Sen. Aragon's archives set to be useful learning tool

Published: Monday, January 27, 2003

Last November, Sen. Manny M. Aragon (N.M.-D) donated a collection of political archives documenting years of legislative work to UNM's General Library, which already houses the complete archives of many New Mexican politicians.

Rose Diaz, a research historian and 20-year veteran of the library, has been working closely with Aragon during the past three years to compile and organize the archives.

"The papers basically cover 1995 through 2001," Diaz said.

Aragon started his political career when he was 21 after being elected president of the Young Democrats of Bernalillo County in 1968.

Earning his bachelor's degree in political science from UNM in 1970, Aragon worked with the UNM Clinical Law Practice shortly thereafter and was allowed to prosecute felony cases while still attending law school.

Since then, Aragon has remained a powerful figure in New Mexico politics. Speaking at the Democratic National Convention and working for the Senate Finance Committee were important milestones for Aragon, as well as being the first Hispanic in the nation to hold the position of State Senate President Pro-Tempore.

Diaz said that the archives occupy roughly 160 cubic feet of library space, containing a tremendous amount of material for a seven-year period.

Diaz said that each legislative session that Aragon was in office yielded an average of 20-22 boxes of documents pertaining to committee work, work from Aragon's analysts and constituents and responses from the Senator to constituent requests and inquiries.

Not only will the archives be of use to historians and interested students and faculty, but will also help Aragon and his staff access specific information.

"The creation of this political archive is to collect (documents from) New Mexico's elected and appointed officials, and what we're trying to do is connect the dots to show how all of these political people tie in together," Diaz said. "It's very much a teaching tool."