Española bows out of Fiesta, Oñate commemoration
SANTA FE — The future of Española Fiesta is now in the hands of community members after the City Council unanimously approved taking the city out of organizing the annual celebration, including the traditional commemoration of the arrival in 1589 of Spanish conquistador Don Juan de Oñate.
The switch means that there will be no Española Fiesta this year, according to Councilor John Ramon Vigil, as a yet to-be-formed community group that will take over Fiesta finds its footing.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Javier Sanchez and the eight councilors voted to repeal and replace the city’s code provisions on city government’s authority over Fiesta del Valle de Española, held in July.
The Oñate commemoration during Fiesta has become controversial, as Native Americans object to how the indigenous population was treated during the Spanish conquest. Santa Fe’s similar celebrations, its Fiesta and Entrada — a re-enactment on the Plaza of the 1692 re-occupation led by Don Diego de Vargas, 12 years after the Pueblo Revolt — have come under scrutiny and attracted protests by
Native American activists.
According to Española’s new ordinance, the city can have nothing more than a “co-sponsorhsip role” in Fiesta and that for the event to continue, it will have to be organized by a local nonprofit or independent organization.
The Española Fiesta has been held in July since 1933. It was organized off and on by residents until 1969, when the city took it over, according to Vigil.
The privatization of Fiestas comes about one
month after Mayor Sanchez nominated and the council approved five people to serve on the 2018 Fiesta del Valle Española executive council. According to the city website, the new members were tasked with compiling local input about re-imagining the festivities.
“My initial intention was to create a celebration that would be inclusive of everyone in the Valley,” Sanchez said, adding that he had wanted to involve neighboring pueblos.