PHOENIX — Arizona State University welcomed a record number of Sun Devils when classes started for the fall semester.
School has come a long way, and some of the history of its early students has been forgotten. History like Los Conquistadores student organization.
Only a few living members remain, and 12News got a chance to sit down with one who remembered what campus life was like back then.
Gabino Montaño, or Gabby, still remembers looking through the student handbook when he went to study at Arizona State University in the 1950s.
"And I thought ok I'm going to join two clubs." One of them was Los Conquistadores, the first Mexican American student organization founded at the school.
Montaño said, "I was a member of Los Conquistadores four years."
The club was established before his time, back in 1937. That’s when students in the Spanish club wanted to get more involved in social justice.
Dr. Christine Marin is an archivist and professor emeritus at ASU who studied the history of the club. She said the early members had to split off when they knew they had a knew objective.
"We want to go out and do the work in the community," Dr. Marin recalled of their mindset at the time.
One of the club’s main goals was to raise money for students like them to get an education since money was often a factor in keeping them away, especially if they came from the smaller mining towns.
Montaño remembers his fundraising days. "In those days it was only $200," he remembers about the scholarship. But we know, even now, that every bit helps. So, they did whatever they could to raise money.
Montaño said, 'We had cake sales…We even had a dance in Superior, Arizona." They also served drinks at a dance hall in south Phoenix, and he said, "What we made in wages would go toward the scholarship."
Over the years, other clubs with the same goal sprouted up and in the 1990s former Los Conquistadores members started a luncheon tradition during ASU homecoming where they could get together and reminisce
"We were all friends,” Montaño said as he looked through old pictures of the gatherings.
The club came to an official end in 2020 when they donated the last funds to another foundation, but Dr. Marin says their goal of “Progress Through Education,” lives on.
"We're still doing originally what others did for us, helped us improve our lives, so let's try and help others."
Montaño has very fond memories of the group and while it's no longer around, he says if the mission lives on with these other student groups, he's happy with what they accomplished.
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