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Las Cruces Education: KRWG-FM To Debut New Mexico Rural Heritage Oral History Series

National Archives

KRWG Public Media will present a six-part series on New Mexico’s rural heritage in collaboration with New Mexico State University.  The series will air on KRWG News This Week, which is broadcast Saturdays at 5 p.m. on KRWG-FM 90.7.  The series will air following the show’s regular segments covering the week’s top stories. 

Each week, the series will highlight a different topic, beginning with “daily life” on February 20.  The additional topics include: Education (February 27), Farming (March 6), Commerce (March 13), Religion & Health (March 20), and War (March 20).

The New Mexico Rural Heritage Oral History Project is a collaboration between anthropologists at New Mexico State University and the Oral History Program at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces. The goal of the project was to record the memories of New Mexicans who grew up in rural parts of the state in the first half of the twentieth century.

Project organizer Kelly Jenks, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Anthropology department at New Mexico State University.  “It’s amazing what you can learn when you take the time to listen. Every person we spoke with shared compelling stories about the daily realities of growing up in rural New Mexico—a wide range of experiences ranging from ration cards and home remedies to favorite meals and children’s games. I really enjoyed these conversations, and I appreciate them even more now that I’m listening to them again during a world-wide pandemic,” said Jenks.

Fred Martino, Ph.D, is KRWG Public Media’s Director of Content.  “We are proud to collaborate with New Mexico State University to broadcast this outstanding series.  Preserving our history is a key part of KRWG’s mission and these broadcasts are now archived at www.krwg.org/programs/new-mexico-rural-heritage, said Martino.