Oñate is as offensive as the Confederacy

I AM from the Acoma people. I am writing in response to a Journal article dated June 13 ... about the removal of the conquistador monuments in Alcalde and Albuquerque.

I’m not surprised at all that we in Albuquerque and New Mexico

that large are still in this conversation. We have made absolutely no progress at all since the time we fought with (then-Mayor) Marty Chavez over this same issue. The calls to remove the obscene Oñate monuments fell on deaf ears then. The city of Albuquerque had no sense of decency as it flat-out refused to listen to the people.

(Reynaldo “Sonny”) Rivera, creator of the grotesquely macabre Oñate monument outside the Albuquerque Museum, says “he doesn’t see a correlation between calls to remove Confederate sculptures and calls to remove sculptures glorifying Oñate.” He, along with many, ignorantly fails to see there is no real difference between the two.

The Confederacy was not about breaking the country in two. It

was about slavery, and the main economic reason behind slavery was greed. Slavery fueled the U.S. economy. And it was greed that motivated Oñate north to present-day New Mexico. Oñate’s invasion was about wealth in land, gold and human souls. There were no lofty ideals of freedom. It was greed and nothing more. Greed motivated slavery, and greed motivated Oñate . ...

Taking down obscene statues wouldn’t be like “removing a part of history,” as Rivera states. Well, maybe taking down his creation glorifying a war criminal and murderer would be removing a part of recent history, but it would be well worth it. Our communities would have an action that would be unifying . ...

MAURUS CHINO Albuquerque