Mela Leger

Mela Leger is a New Mexico historical marker in Guadalupe County.

US 84 near intersection with NM Highway 119 -- mile marker between mile markers 77 and 78

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At four, Manuelita de Atocha (Mela) Lucero Leger read Spanish language newspapers to her blind grandfather in Colonias. Although New Mexico’s constitution protects Spanish-speaking students, school children were often punished for speaking Spanish. As a pioneer in bilingual education, Mela changed that by founding one of the nation’s first bilingual multi-cultural schools, developing curriculum, training teachers and helping write the historic 1973 Bilingual Education Act.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands. These pages carry the spreadsheet’s record; a marker listed here may have moved or may no longer stand. the program’s page ↗

TodayHistorical map

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USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Historical maps covering this location

1876 · Territory of New Mexico (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1890 · Bernal, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1891 · Bernal, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1894 · Bernal, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1927 · State of New Mexico. General Land Office. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

State of New Mexico. General Land Office, 1927, covering the location of Mela Leger, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — State of New Mexico. General Land Office, 1927, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

Mela Leger

Historical maps covering this location

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