Part III: Guerro: Spending time away from parents was tough

Seventy-seven-year-old Manuel Guerro of Alamo began his education at the Alamo Day School, followed by years at the Albuquerque Indian School, half a year at the Santa Fe Indian School and three years at the Magdalena BIA dorms.

“All my life when I was going to school, nothing but dormitory,” Guerro said.

He said spending most of his young life away from home was tough, especially during his time in Albuquerque, when he would spend long periods of time without seeing his family.

“It makes a lot of big difference because at home, you can learn your culture, you can learn your language,” Guerro said, “I felt like I missed out especially when they start punishing you, they don’t just punish you, they punish you hard.”

Guerro remembers being about seven or eight years old when he was sent to the Albuquerque Indian boarding school. It would have been about 1954, three years before the Magdalena dorms opened.

“Without seeing my parents for the whole nine months. They never come back for Thanksgiving vacation or Christmas vacation. My parents didn’t have no transportation. But once you get used to it, you don’t pay attention until you’re misbehaving or make a little mistake, and that’s when you realize that you want to go back home.” Guerro said.

He said the punishments at the Albuquerque Indian School were rough compared to Santa Fe and Magdalena.

“When you make a little mistake, they almost torture you,” Guerro said, “They should just talk to you instead of using the board to punish you for about two or three days, sometime without eating, sometime without going to the movie. Albuquerque was that way when I was only maybe first grade or second grade.”

Magdalena BIA dorms

According to documents on the BIA dorms in Magdalena from the National Archives and Records Administration from 1965 to 1966, Alamo children were served by a small boarding school, the Alamo Day School, which opened in 1941. It offered education to pre-first, first and second graders. After second grade, students were expected to attend off-reservation boarding schools until the Magdalena Dorm opened in September 1957.

The Alamo day school was closed in 1959 after Alamo parents voted in favor a dormitory in Magdalena, said the document.

Guerro said moving to the Magdalena dorm was better for him because he was closer to his home and family.

“This Magdalena dorm was good. I’m not saying 100% but maybe 60% or 70% it was all right,” Guerro said.

Still he didn’t like the dorms and found himself getting into trouble, once he even attempted to run away.

“I got caught by this old man. Then he got me embarrassed, and then I never did run away again,” Guerro said.

Guerro said he was kicked out of the dorms and he wasn’t able to graduate from Magdalena Schools.

“They told me that I was too wild for the dormitory,” Guerro said, “They told me I was a wild Indian then after that, they kicked me out,”

It wasn’t until he was about 70 years old, over fifty years later, that he graduated from Alamo Schools.

“They gave me the diploma and told me it’s a 100% diploma from New Mexico,” Guerro said.

Alamo Schools

According to their website, the Alamo Navajo School Board, Inc., took advantage of the 1975 Indian Self-Determination Act, and the Alamo Navajo Community School opened its doors on October 1, 1979, as a kindergarten through 12th grade school.

Guerro is happy for his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids, who have all gone to school in Alamo. He said Alamo kids can now learn from their families while also getting a good education.

“They get to come home every day,” Guerro said, “The kids that go to school here take advantage of it, because the school is right in the middle of the Alamo ban of Navajo.”

Guerro hopes that the Alamo kids will make a difference.

“Some of this younger generation, they are coming out strong with the English and also, like on Socorro county level, state level, Washington level,” Guerro said, “Maybe in about another five or 10 more years, maybe one of the Alamo man is going to be united states president.”

He said Alamo or “Big Tree” used to be called Puertocito until the late 1940’s.

“We are the Alamo band of Navajo. We’re not a reservation. We are the band because when you say band it is a lot stronger word than the reservation.” Guerro said, “We’re not Navajo. We are part of Mangus Colorado Apache tribe from Chiricahua Apache. This is the history that I found out. We were found here in Alamo, 1907. That’s the reason why we are called a band of Navajo.”

The Magdalena BIA dorms were permanently closed around the time the Alamo School opened in 1979. Since then, the dorms have been abandoned, overgrown with weeds, broken windows and sinking roofs. Today, the building stands as a haunting reminder of its challenging and complex history. Only a few Alamo elders, including Violet Lucero and Guerro, hold memories of the life once lived within its walls.