March 2012
Right at Home with Dr. Barcelo
by Craig Springer
Dr. Nancy "Rusty" Barcelo is new to the neighborhood. She is a recent arrival to the Española area, and to New Mexico. But already she feels rooted, and for good reason. She comes from a long line of Hispanic families who settled in the American Southwest. Some of her kin have lived in the Southwest for decades. Her father was from Douglas, Ariz., descended from a family that became Americans when America came to them in 1848.
While the Española area where Barcelo lives is steeped in history, she has an interesting history of her own that she brings to the beautiful valley. Barcelo moved there in the summer of 2010 from Washington state to serve as president of Northern New Mexico College, powered by Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative. She makes a home in the shadows of the Jemez and the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
Name
Dr. Nancy "Rusty" Barcelo
Resides Near
Española
Co-op Member
Jemez Mountains Electric
Occupation
President of Northern New Mexico College
Loves to Excercise
"I try to get an hour of exercise a day. It's like brushing my teeth."
In Her Words
Family is important. "I have a large extended family, mostly in California and Arizona. But I have 10,000 children (former and current students)."
While a native of California, Barcelo has moved about some in adulthood for the same reasons most of us do, employment. After she earned a degree at Chico State College, she earned graduate degrees at the University of Iowa. She wended through work at the University of Minnesota as vice provost, and then served as vice president at the University of Washington before coming to New Mexico.
At both of these prestigious universities, she made her mark in teaching a curriculum on higher education administration, and ethnic studies with classes that focused on the Mexican-American woman. She has published academic papers in journals of her profession. She's written papers on equality and diversity and multiculturalism in the Journal of Mujeres Activas and others. Her writings have been both professional papers and creative pieces, including music.
She's a guitarist who plays mostly for her own consumption and pleasure, with an affinity for rancheras and correidas, folk music and story-telling. But she's a child of her own times she says: you might find Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Fleetwood Mac on her iPod, too.
And now as president of a growing college, it goes without saying that she wields some influence, but it's the close face-to-face time with students, mentoring and guiding, that she hopes to experience again, soon. "I miss being in the classroom," says Barcelo. "It's there that keeps you in touch with the students, and at least one course a semester would be good."
And Barcelo must have been good at her past endeavors. With some reserve she expounded on an award that she will receive this month. The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies will bestow upon this New Mexican leader the National Scholar Award, given for life achievement. "I was shocked, it is certainly a surprise—totally unexpected," says Barcelo. "I wish my parents were there to see it, but somehow I think they will be out in the audience."
With the award, Barcelo hopes to set up an endowed chair at the college that would bring in scholars from around the country to talk about Chicano, Latino and Hispanic studies. "There are so many research opportunities here that would benefit visiting scholars and our students," she says.
While Barcelo may be a newcomer, she feels very much at home. She comments that the Spanish spoken where she lives now is "an old kind of Spanish, the kind my Dad spoke. There is a vestige; the culture is still being preserved here that connects the past to the 21st century," says Barcelo. "I feel very much at home here—it's all very interesting."
Return to top
