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Arizona Civics Podcast
Welcome to the Arizona Civics Podcast. This podcast aims to share our journey of sustaining Arizona’s interests in reforms to civic education by working with civic educators in our state. This work is being done by the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University. I am your host, Liz Evans, Civic Education and Outreach Program Director at ASU, and I will interview Arizona teachers, content experts, and leaders in civic education. We hope you enjoy our journey to make Arizona a national civics model!
Arizona Civics Podcast
Arizona America 250: Celebrating Our Nation's Semi-Quincentennial
How does a state like Arizona – not even in existence when the Declaration of Independence was signed – celebrate America's 250th birthday? Secretary of State Adrian Fontes joins us to share the ambitious and creative plans underway for America 250 AZ, a multi-year celebration culminating in 2026.
Far from being just another patriotic party, this semi-quincentennial celebration showcases Arizona's unique perspective on American history. As Fontes explains, our land was very much "in existence" in 1776, home to indigenous peoples and later visited by Spanish explorers (including Fontes' own ancestors). This rich tapestry of cultures continues to define Arizona's approach to commemorating national milestones.
The centerpiece of Arizona's celebration is Passport 250, a statewide initiative encouraging residents and visitors to explore the Grand Canyon State through themed experiences. From Dine 250 promoting local eateries to Hike 250 showcasing our natural beauty, each program invites participation while supporting local communities. The Liberty Bell project will create a mobile museum around Arizona's replica Liberty Bell, touring communities throughout the state before returning to a new ceremonial base containing time capsules for future generations.
Perhaps most inspiring is the story behind the America 250 AZ logo, created by a 17-year-old high school student whose artwork now heads to the Smithsonian. This exemplifies what Fontes sees as the celebration's core message: how ordinary individuals connect to our extraordinary collective achievement. Through this commemoration, he hopes Arizonans will gain both humility about our place in history and gratitude for those who helped build our society.
Want to get involved? Visit https://azsos.gov/az250 to discover upcoming events and opportunities to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime celebration that brings together our past, present, and future as Arizonans and Americans.
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Should be fun, then yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, Welcome everyone to the Civics. Let's see, I got to start again. Welcome everyone to the Arizona Civics Podcast. I am very excited about our guest today and about our topic. Our guest today is our Secretary of State here in Arizona, Secretary Adrian Fontes, and today we are going to talk about America 250 AZ. So, Secretary Fontes, thank you so much for being here. Can you tell us what is America 250 AZ and why this anniversary is significant for the state of Arizona?
Speaker 1:Well, first, thanks for having me, and this is an anniversary that's significant for the entire nation and, some of us proud Americans would argue, for the whole world. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, and this coming year 2026, will be the semi-quincentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and so we figured we'd throw a big old party, and there are states organizing across the country really to do just that. It's a very, very big deal. A quarter of a millennia will mark for this nation a heck of a lot of achievements, and I think that's a significant if not a severe understatement your understatement.
Speaker 1:The Arizona America 250 Commission in Arizona has been underway and rolling through its work for well over a year now, a year and a half almost. We were created by session law by our state legislature a few years ago. About a year and a half or so more or less ago, the governor appointed me to the commission and the commission then organized and elected me to be the chair. So I'm very proud to be the chair of the Arizona America 250 Commission and we've been doing everything since then, hiring staff and getting organized and making things happen so we can do a lot of really cool stuff for a whole bunch of reasons, not just throwing parties, but helping people understand the significance and importance of 250 years of declaring ourselves independent from tyranny and all of the other good things that come along with our history and heritage.
Speaker 2:So Arizona was not in existence right in 1776. We wait till 1812. In existence right in 1776. We wait till 1812. So how will Arizona's unique history and contributions be highlighted in the national celebration? Because I might be biased, but I think Arizona has got it going on when it comes to celebrating things, especially our country.
Speaker 1:I think there would be some people who would have a little bit of a different view. Arizona was absolutely in existence back then. We just weren't called Arizona. We were called by a whole bunch of other names, by a whole bunch of different people. In fact, I'm uniquely personally proud to be part of this celebration. I myself had an ancestor who was 25 years before the Declaration was out, here in these parts of the world, riding with the Spanish cavalry, and I have, you know, a long family history in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico, what is now Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico, and so do a lot of other people from a lot of different places.
Speaker 1:Arizona is a really magical sort of a space where, not the way that many other parts of the country, had a serious and longstanding indigenous population that was chased off their land. But they're still here and they're still here guarding their land. And more people came from other parts. Some people came south to north, some people came east to west and, frankly, some people came from overseas and were brought over to work in railroads and in other ways, as so many immigrants from China were. So we're really kind of the last frontier, we're the last of the 48 contiguous states to gain statehood in 1912.
Speaker 1:And there's a fun story behind that too. We have this unique mix of all things American, including our politics, our food, our culture, our music and everything else. We are the most geographically diverse state in the Union, which I think is an incredible thing, particularly given the physical size advantage that states like California or Texas have over Arizona, and I think we've got one of the most colorful histories of any state in the Union when you look back at some of the great stories that have emerged just over the last couple centuries. We're a great place. I would agree with you, and I think we have a lot to celebrate.
Speaker 2:So can I know what one of your favorite stories is? Because I know a lot of really great stories about our state, but I'd love to hear what one of yours is Well being in public service.
Speaker 1:A lot of people ask me about like, tell me about Arizona politics, and I say you don't need to know about politics. Today. Let me tell you a story about our founding, and I'll shorten it up for you because it can be quite long and involved. In 1910, arizona had a statehood convention and we sent our proposed constitution to Washington DC and the president Taft said no because it was too progressive. This was the progressive era, and we included the election for retention of judges in our Constitution, and that was a step too far for the president. New Mexico got statehood, because they submitted around the same time, but we did not, and so he sent it back and we convened the exact same people which I think was a feat in the constitutional convention. They took a vote and amended the constitution, sent it back to Washington DC. Of note, they didn't retype it, they didn't resign it and they didn't redate it. All they did was attach the amendment and set it back to Washington DC.
Speaker 1:Time goes by, it goes through its thing and a little over a year later, in February, early 1912, president Taft signs the Declaration of Statehood, which, if you read it, spells out this story. And then Arizona becomes a state. On February 14th 1912, which is, of course, not only statehood day, but it's St Valentine's Day Some people celebrate. And then one of the first things that Arizona did as a state was amend the Constitution and take out the amendment that we had sent to Washington DC.
Speaker 1:So when people ask about Arizona politics and how we are, I let them know this story, because we have this crazy organized independence. We always manage to get things done. We manage to get big things done, and that's just a small example. And we do it together and we do it in a way that nobody could predict, but it just happens. And so the fun epilogue of that story is, you know, I'm in charge of the State Library, archives and Public Records. That's one of the pieces of my portfolio and in the State Archives we have two original typed versions of the Constitution, the original ones that were signed by the Constitutional Convention. Both of them, of course, as I said, dated 1910, when our statehood is 1912. And that's why. So you know, that to me is one of my favorite stories about this state, as I sit here in my office literally overseeing the Copper Dome, which is the only Copper Dome state capital. I believe in the United States, so I'm just a lucky guy that I get to do what I do.
Speaker 2:I love that story too, and I also love that the next presidential election Taft did not win Arizona, Like Arizona, can get things done yeah, surprise, surprise, sorry, president Taft, yeah. So what roles then do the schools in our state and educators play in helping connect students with the 250th anniversary? Because I think you know I taught in Arizona for 17 years and I think a lot of times kids are like, oh, that happened 250 years ago, like who cares? But how can we help connect our students with this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you know, I think that innovation is a really good way, I think. Let me give you a great example from pop culture. You know, nobody had too much of an idea who Alexander Hamilton was until Lin-Manuel Miranda made it this smash hit, and he did it in a way that was just absolutely fascinating. One of my kids was listening to the soundtrack and how he used the cast that he used, and there's this fabulously talented group of people and the way they told that story. Not all of it's 100% accurate. I think he took a couple liberties here and there, but this, to me, is the way that schools can, I think, do what they do best and teachers can do what they do best, and that is figure out ways that work for your students. You know it doesn't make any sense for a guy like me who's, you know, pretty good at doing some other things. You know, running government agencies is very different than running a classroom, I'm sure, but those kids really are depending on teachers, administrators, educators, school boards to figure out ways that work for their communities, that work for their students, that reflect. You know, a way to reach back and learn from history. You know, one of the things I think is to help kids understand why the past is important, is to let them know why they're so smart and why they've developed, and I used to do this at the beginning of every semester.
Speaker 1:I occasionally was an adjunct professor at Phoenix College, teaching constitutional criminal law procedures, some ethics, things like that, and what I would tell them was these are about 20-year-old students, right? I'd say, listen, you're 20 years old. Think to one of your cousins or neighbor or something who's 10. Like, what does your life experience look like between 10 and 20 years old? How much have you learned? Right, now, think how that 10-year-old sees a five-year-old kid. What have they learned between five years old and 10 years old? How do they act differently? How do they see the world differently? Now think about that two and a half year old kid who's still basically shoving dirt in their mouth, you know, or whatever two and a half year old kids do. And then I say now think about you at 20 and me at 40, whatever I was at the time, I'm in my fifties now, but you know 50s now and kind of make it relatable to them in their own life outside of themselves, and help kids appreciate you are learning. Whether you want to or not. You are growing and developing and creating this new person all the time, and that's a wonderfully exciting thing. So those lessons that we can learn from the past help us grow and develop. They help us become better versions of ourselves all the time and if we just take a little bit of time and work on that, we could probably do pretty darn well for folks particularly like, for example, through storytelling.
Speaker 1:I told the story about the Constitution. People love that stuff because there's a little drama, there's a hero, there's a villain, there's a thing that happens, a through line. That's what this is about. America 250 is our story and America 250 tells us something really importantly too, because those of us who have been around long enough remember the bicentennial right 1776 to 1976.
Speaker 1:I was a six-year-old kid and it was like the patriotic tooth fairy had just thrown up all over. There was red, white and blue bunting everywhere. They did the quarter with the little, the buffed-out, you know patriot guy with his three-corner hat. You know what I'm talking about, that stuff and it was just a celebration. Everybody was super happy. This one's a little different.
Speaker 1:The mood in the country is a little bit different, but I still think that that's the challenge of education and I think that's one of the reasons why people get into education so they can be creative, so they can capitalize on opportunities like this to capture the imagination of young people and relate to those young people that they know.
Speaker 1:There might be kids in your classroom that have unique stories in their lives that you can relate back. You know a kid who may have family in Massachusetts, whatever right, who may, you know, have some other thing right that you can just draw these little bits and pieces and connections from B. But that that's the nature of the work I think, for educators is to keep the interest of kids, and it's got to be so hard now because they're just scattered all over the place. But I feel like you know, educators are up to the challenge. I come from a family of public school teachers and they were pretty creative. They were pretty creative in their approach to, you know, raising kids. So I think the opportunities are all there. But far be it from me you know a politician to tell teachers in their classrooms how they should be doing their jobs. I'm just trying to provide the opportunities for them to make that thing happen, yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that you bring up storytelling, because you're talking about how you know you can trace your ancestry back to the place where we are now. Before it was Arizona, and I learned that my eighth great grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, and so for me for me it's.
Speaker 2:I'm here in Arizona and my job is to continue the work that he started so many generations ago. And kids, you know, I taught middle school, I taught high school. Now I'm teaching some classes at ASU. It doesn't matter the age, they love stories, right, the Taft drama. It's fun and it it does show the spirits of our state, of our country, and I I think that educators or parents or anybody in the community can start kind of doing that with students to get them excited about something you know the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. So what opportunities will Arizonans have to kind of get involved, you know, with events, with projects, because I know that this isn't just going to be on July 4th 2026, we're going to throw a party and we're done. I know that there's a lot going on.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to do that too.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you bet.
Speaker 2:And other things. Right, we have. I mean, the website is, and listeners, the website will be in the show notes, but there are so many cool things that can be done, starting today if you wanted to right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, when we, when the commission, started doing its work, we just kind of sat around and started imagineering what do we want to do, like, what kinds of things can we do? And everybody's always like, ok, you know, john Adams had prescribed marching bands, sporting events, fireworks, displays, festivities like that right, like, our celebration is pretty well prescribed and OK, that's great. But what else can we do? You know, in here, because that's all going to happen, we're going to have those things happening in big and small communities across Arizona. But the notion was like, how do we tie everybody together under one banner for the state right, and have this unique sort of experience that is uniquely Arizona for this 250, because it's going to be a little different than Pennsylvania. You know, the Commonwealth is a different place. It's going to be different than Delaware or Connecticut. We're out West and we do things a little differently out of here, thank goodness. And so, anyway, we've created all these opportunities, captured mostly by some of the projects that we're working on. So one of the big projects that is continuing to build is called Passport 250. Passport 250 is basically like I don't know, you could say it's sort of like this permission slip to explore right, and we've got a whole bunch of components to it. There's like Dine 250, which is going to promote a bunch of little cafes and eateries across the entire state where people can go check out.
Speaker 1:We're going to have Hike 250, with hiking trails and Read 250 opportunities for kids to read and get up to a certain amount of hours, read and do stuff. Like all these kinds of activities. We're working with the travel and tourism folks. We're working with the Arizona State Parks. We're working with educators across the state. We're working with military families and veterans groups. One of the projects is a hike 250, 250 miles of hiking trails across the state, and a side project under the Veterans and Military Families Committee is the Freedom Trail, the Arizona Freedom Trail, which is we're taking over the Arizona Trail, which is an 800-mile trail that goes from Utah to the Mexican border. We're splitting it into 250 sections and we're going to have a relay and we're sending folks up and down this trail, either hiking or biking or horseback riding or running or walking or whatever people can do, and so we can complete that and really feature sort of the backbone of Arizona that way. One of my favorites is Cheers 250. We're doing 250 wineries, breweries and distilleries across the state. We've got an exclusive deal with Mother Road up in Flagstaff to do our beer. We've got a bourbon that's going to be coming out of Santan. In Chandler we're zeroing in on a winery so we can balance things out.
Speaker 1:But people will be able to go out and explore and a lot of it's really about supporting local business, getting out to smaller communities and really keeping those travel dollars close in Arizona. Sort of the economic motivator underneath this is we are a richer state. When we experience Arizona, we don't mind people going out of state or overseas whatever, but there is so much to offer right here in the Grand Canyon State for people to just stay close to home. You know, go down to Bisbee, explore Route 66, go down to Yuma. The state prison down there is weird but it's so cool. In fact, the first library in the state of Arizona was at the state, at the territorial prison in Yuma. I don't know if you knew that, liz, I know you're in education. That's cool, but yeah, so pointing out these things.
Speaker 1:Then we've got a couple of bigger projects which I think we mentioned a little earlier was the Liberty Bell project. So many decades ago there was a replica Liberty Bell that was donated to the state of Arizona. In fact, every state got one. Well, we're deciding to do something a little different, because right now it sits kind of unceremoniously between the House and the Senate buildings here at the state Capitol complex. We're going to pick it up and put it on the back of a trailer and create a mobile museum around this object. And then we're going to take the Liberty Bell and we're going to tour it around the state and we're going to take it to libraries and city halls and we're going to tour it around the state and we're going to take it to libraries and city halls and we're going to take it to school parking lots and where they're doing food drives and all this stuff, to sort of bring attention and education and connectivity not just to the Liberty Bell and the state capitol but to what all of this is about. And so that's going to be happening in the spring of 2026. That's going to be happening in the spring of 2026. And when it gets back to the state capital, our good friends over at Sunt Corporation have decided to donate a new ceremonial permanent base for the bell, because they pick it up and move it here and there all the time. And this base will actually have time capsules in it, a 50 and 100 year time capsule.
Speaker 1:So, like this whole project is just turning into so much fun, we've got a musical that we're kidnapping over at, uh, gammage Auditorium in Tempe Suffs, uh, the musical that commemorates the suffragettes and that whole thing. The first show opening night is going to be the America, arizona, america 250 production of Suffs. We're just kidnapping it and we're just going to throw our name all over it and put our logo on it and having a good time with that. And last but certainly not least, is all the communities, chambers of commerce, libraries, municipalities across the state have been joining with us in their projects. They're renaming projects and doing a lot of fun stuff. So in 2026, in August, the Payson Rodeo and, um, I think they have a big parade or something going on up there. They're going to rename it the Arizona America 250 Rodeo Parade and Film Festival. It's a film festival up there and the great thing is and I know we're on a podcast, but uh, we're, we have cameras on while we're, while we're recording this, I'm going to show you. I don't know if you've seen it.
Speaker 1:The logo for Arizona America 250 is a phenomenal piece of art. As you can see, it's got all five of the five Cs cotton, climate cattle, citrus and copper, of course. And it was created another story by a bored high school student who was 17, sitting in a classroom and the teacher read some announcement and it was like well, if you're bored, create a logo. So she did. And Riley, who basically didn't have huge aspirations she wanted to be a nail tech. She wasn't really sure with what to do with herself. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah.
Speaker 1:She submits this thing and out of almost a hundred submissions statewide, the internet votes and decides that she's going to be the winner. And she has since hung out with me and her family. She was on the floor of the House of Representatives, she met the governor. She's been putzing around the state at all of these things. We had featured her on the night of the anniversary of Paul Revere's ride at our big celebration here at the state capitol, and today I think she's already enrolled. She's a freshman at Arizona State University. She's going to get her degree just because of this. She hadn't even thought about it. So, yeah, this has already been a success in my mind. We got one kid to say I might be able to do that, let's try. And that, to me, is really what this is all about. It's to show that, in our best times and in our worst times, our whole history is about forward movement, progress and trying harder for success, and we should take the time to celebrate the successes that we own as a nation. That's what's really important.
Speaker 2:And I know that that sticker has actually been sent the logo to the Smithsonian Museum of American History for their semi-quincentennial exhibit. So not only did she create this incredible logo, but now she's going to be in a Smithsonian museum. How cool is that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for a 17 year old kid from Arizona to have a bit of her artwork in the Smithsonian is is an is an honor and it's it's a, it's a privilege to be able to be a part of that. You know, to help this, she didn't even really know what she was doing when she did it, I don't think, but it's just been such an impactful thing in her life and her family's life. Honestly, you know, I met her grandparents and her folks and they're just the nicest people and it's just been so great. And as we go around the state and we talk to people about this, they just get inspired oh, that sounds awesome. We should do this, we should do that. And if all we do is really raise some hopes and get people talking about something other than the things that divide us, if that's the conversation that we're having because we're talking about America 250, I'm in. I'm in 100% Right, because this is the epitome of America is finding a reason to come together.
Speaker 1:And a lot of times we did it because of tragedy. A lot of times we did it because of natural disaster or emergency. This is our chance to do it, because we're celebrating each other, we're celebrating our collective history. We're celebrating the good stuff, acknowledging the not so good stuff, but really having a great time with it, like Tucson just did. They just celebrated 250 years of the Presidio being built down in Southern Arizona and I thought that was a great thing and a great privilege for me to be a part of that. So this 250 thing just keeps on rolling and I'm super excited to be a part of it.
Speaker 2:I love, I'm so excited for all of these ways to be a part of the read 250, the dine 250. Um, I mean, I've lived in Arizona since I was six years old, so, again, I'm a little bit biased, but I our state is so diverse and I've been to so many places that I would go and be like I never knew that this existed. And you know, arizona's history is not perfect. There are internment camps here. There are, you know, places of really just being able to think about history in general, and so I love that we are encouraging people to go explore.
Speaker 2:Our state is amazing and to go explore it and shop local and eat local and drink local. As soon as you said Mother Road, I'm like I went to school in Flagstaff, I know exactly what you're talking about, and Santan, you know, is here where I live and it's such a celebration of our state and the people in it. So this might be kind of a hard question then. So what message do you hope that, specifically, students and educators and again, whether they're public school, private school, charter, homeschool, whatever those educators look like, what do you hope they take away from this commemoration as we kind of look to the future?
Speaker 1:Well, I hope they take a couple of things away. But one of the things I think I think back and I think about my experience as a kid during the bicentennial and one of the things that I came away with was this kind of this question, not so much a definitive this is awesome, right but a question. And the question was but it keeps kind of popping up in my head and it's just like like how the hell do we do this? Like, how does this work? How do we organize this many people in this vast of a space and everybody and things still get done, maybe not perfectly all the time, okay fine, but we have a fully functioning society. We've got a whole bunch of people that are working together in ways that no one could have ever imagined. I mean, we don't live in the days anymore where you make your own clothes and you raise your own vegetables and you do all the other kinds of things like this. We live in a day and age where you can have time to stop and think and create and dream and do all kinds of things, because we're organized. Like, how does this all work together? And there's a sense of wonder that I got attached to my brain during the bicentennial that I now hope that we can pass along to other folks. And just this, because you get to be humbled by that right, that I'm a piece of this magnificent, ever-expanding puzzle that is the United States of America and, ultimately, more and more, our global society, right, and to make that connection, I think, is really amazing, because you can have a lot of then with the historical aspect.
Speaker 1:You have a lot of gratitude, and what I tell people all the time you know, no matter what they're doing, especially young people, it's like the two characteristics of solid leaders and people that get stuff done are humility and gratitude. Right, you can be a big ego person but still have a humility that matters, like an appreciation for your skillset, your place, your capacity and understanding of that, and still be humbled by that. And you also have to accompany that with a certain gratitude, because none of us got here on our own. I don't know anybody that taught themselves how to read. I don't know anybody that taught themselves math. I don't know anybody that taught themselves how to drive a car. And if you said you did, I'm calling BS on you. That's not how the world works, right? So you've got to have gratitude, and to me it's about both of those things.
Speaker 1:So, as far as what I would love to see people take away from this, aside from this sense of togetherness and unity if we can build that, I think that would be phenomenal. But, on a personal note, for individuals, I'd love for folks to reflect a little bit and just be a little humble and have a little bit of grace, just have that gratitude inside of them, because we're all a part of this thing and this thing is magnificent. I mean, when you think about the changes in the world and you think about the changes that have happened in the world in the last 250 years, and you consider the number of changes that originated in the United States of America, right In the law, in science and technology and the arts, and you know, transportation and energy and all the innovation, sure, there's other people that have done some cool stuff, but this nation, which is incredibly diverse, and those diverse perspectives, give us different points of view and imagination and ingenuity rises from that. Right, if we'd all thought exactly the same, we'd never invent anything, we'd never create any opportunities, we'd never be able to make big things happen.
Speaker 1:America is about big things and hopefulness, and so as I go through this, I think about all of that stuff at the same time, which is why it gives me a little bit of a headache, but cause it's a lot, it's a lot, but it's exciting and uh, and it's thrilling and I really just hope people kind of come together and have a good time. You know, at the end of the day, that's really what this is supposed to be about. We look back, you know, we're we're grateful for the cool things and we're grateful for the lessons learned from the not so cool things, from the bad stuff, and I think that those two things humility and gratitude- they're the most important takeaways.
Speaker 2:Secretary Fontes, thank you so much for your time. I was already excited about this because I am a civics and a history person and I very much love our great state, and you know, at Arizona State University Center for American Civics, we do have lessons on the state of Arizona. I actually have one on the Taft Drama with Statehood and we invite you to look at the Secretary of State's website. We will put that in our show notes. Look at ours. You know we have been in our states. I'm part of something called the Arizona Civics Coalition and this is the kind of stuff we're excited about. We're excited about the unity, we're excited about the celebration not only of our country but of our great state, and so thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. I am so stoked for this year and for many more to come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stoked is the right word. I am as well. Thank you so much for having me and best of luck in your endeavor. And look, if you need anything from our office or from the archives or anything like that, let us know We've got a huge amount of really awesome Arizona stuff and we're happy to share it no-transcript.
