Katherine D. Ortega - Early Life

Early Life

Ortega was born in Tularosa, New Mexico to Donaciano Ortega and Catarina Dávalos. She was one of nine children. Her family had originally come to New Mexico when the area still comprised a territory. Ortega's paternal grandfather arrived from Texas in the 1880s while on her mother's side, her great-grandfather Luciano had been one of the original settlers of Tularosa in 1862.

Ortega's father, a former Justice of the Peace in nearby Bent, opened a blacksmith shop in Tularosa in 1928. By the 1940s, he owned a small restaurant with a dance hall attached in which the entire family worked. Ortega began to work in the restaurant at age 10, operating the cash register. Originally, Ortega grew up speaking only Spanish. She later learned English when she entered the local elementary school.

As a teenager, Ortega worked as a teller at Otero County State Bank in order to earn enough money for college. She attended Eastern New Mexico University and graduated with honors in 1957 with a Bachelor's Degree in Business and Economics. Initially wanting to become a teacher, Ortega was dismayed by repeated instances of discrimination and, instead, opened a small accounting firm in Alamogordo with one of her sisters, a certified public accountant. The family had already relocated to that town when her father moved the growing restaurant business there in the 1940s and opened a furniture store.