The Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø will host a lecture titled "Searching for the Milagro Beanfield War in 20th Century New Mexico" on Thursday, May 6.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the University Memorial Center, room 235, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Ken Orona, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of New Mexico, will discuss John Nichol's novel "The Milagro Beanfield War" and the current northern New Mexico water conflict on which the book is based. He will also discuss the relationship of the conflict in northern New Mexico to the struggle in 1923 of the Pueblo and Hispanic populations of the Middle Rio Grande Valley in central New Mexico against the establishment of a conservancy district there.
Orona will explore whether the appeal of the Milagro story is linked to how it reinforces existing perceptions of the cultural and environmental dichotomy between central and northern New Mexico. He will explain how regional similarities and lessons learned from the failed Middle Rio Grande Valley Conservancy District struggle provided a point of historical reference for the successful fight against the Ranchos del Rio Conservancy District.
For more information about the event, please call 303-492-4879.