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The current cohort of honors students at NTCC have set yet another record. Never before in the history of NTCC have its scholars topped the $2,000 mark, for scholarly awards won in a single meeting. In the recent 5-7 March meeting of the Texas State Historical Association at Irving, NTCC scholars won two $400 first-place awards for historical essays, the $600 Chapter Research Award for their film, Chicano Thermidor, and other lesser essay awards totaling over $600 in cash prizes.
The film effort at NTCC was intrinsically related to most of the prize money, as in addition to this award-winning foray, both Emma Mendoza, and Adam Richards began the scholarship of their essays at the San Antonio Library last summer when the group initiated its study of Mexican American associations. But NTCC scholars in sum covered diverse themes with their winning essays. Emma Mendoza, the Gladys Winkle Scholar of NTCC, came in first in the two-year division with her reappraisal of the Texas woman who made the quarter, Jovita Idar. In 2023, the U.S. Mint coined the Idar likeness in its special edition of quarters commemorating women’s suffrage gained 100 years before. Moreover, as Idar is the first Latina to be on American money, her quarter is perhaps the hottest recent American coin collectors scramble for today. Intriguingly, Mendoza’s work calls into question the choice of Idar for this honor. In reviewing the most significant quotes, and actions of Idar, Mendoza notes: “Idar is said to have asserted something she may not have said, and said to have written something she did not write. She also tried to stop something that she could not stop.” José Fuentes, NTCC’s Dr. Jerry Wesson Scholar, placed first in the university division. His essay, based on interviews, represents one of the first to assess the meaning of Mexican immigration to northern Texas. Unlike South Texans, who can refer to themselves as “ Tejanos,” most North Texas immigrants and their children still think of themselves as “Mexican Americans.” But Fuentes argues that over time the north Texas immigrant group will become an entrenched ethnic component as in South Texas, and most likely adopt the “ Tejano” idea. Many have a “ Texas Dream” mentality more than an “American Dream” ideal. They eschew racial ways of thinking. Many over time retain strong bonds to Catholicism and the evolving Mexican community even as they lose their fluency in Spanish, and memory of the homeland.
First-year Presidential Scholar, Adam Richards, the winner of the 2025 Northeast Texas Poetry Contest, showed that his promising trajectory at NTCC is continuing. He won second place and $300 for his unique assessment of French Empire architecture after the Civil War. For Richards, many Texas counties were tempted after the Civil War to build big and bold, rather than remain in the classical tradition of the Confederacy. For Richards, the rise of the railroads made the French Empire in Texas a notable possibility…