Mayor Ken Miyagishima

Kenneth Daniel Gallegos Miyagishima

Welcome & Introduction of Keynote

Abstract: We’ll go over, in broad strokes, classic three act American film structure, generally as it incorporates the idea of The Hero’s Journey, then specifically as that applies to the Peter Jackson film, The Fellowship of the Ring. Consideration will be given to how the creative process can be enhanced, working within a well delineated structure. Finally these lessons will be extended to our real lives: How can you apply the structural elements of the screenplay to achieve the goal of your own personal Hero’s Journey? What is your Ordinary World? Have you had an Inciting Incident yet? Can you create one? Who are your Threshold Guardians, and how do you find them? Not sure we can always find the answers, but asking the questions is a good starting framework.

Kenneth Daniel Gallegos Miyagishima was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1963. He is of both Japanese and Mexican descent. He has livedin Las Cruces since 1971.

He attended public schoolsand in 1985 graduated from New Mexico State University (NSMU) with degrees in finance and real estate. In 1984 – while still attending NMSU – Ken began his insurance and financial services business, which he still owns today.

In 1992, he became New Mexico’s first American of Japanese descent to be elected to public office. From 1998 through 2000, he was voted “Best County Commissioner” in a local newspaper readers’ poll. In 2002, he received the Commander’s Award for Public Service from the United States Department of the Army. Miyagishima won re-election as to the city council in 2005.

Miyagishima is the first American of Japanese and Mexican descent to be elected mayor of Las Cruces. He is also the second person in Doña Ana County to have been elected both chairman of the Doña Ana County Commission and mayor of Las Cruces.

In 2019, Miyagishima was re-elected to his fourth term as mayor of Las Cruces.

Ken and Rosie have four children. Danielle is attending Yale Medical School, while John and Frank are both attending NMSU studying engineering. Carlos is a junior at Centennial High School.