Writer wrong on input for Santa Fe Plaza project

AS CO-DIRECTORS of the CHART (Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation and Truth) project, we would like to correct a factual error in Lena Hakim’s guest column dated June 2. In fact, at least two persons who identify as Indigenous and/or pueblo attended the event and participated in the small group activity/discussion after the excellent talk by Setha Low. Both of these attendees preregistered for the event and provided information about their race and ethnicity. After the talk, attendees were divided into 10 small groups for the art activation (“Create a Plaza for Santa Fe”) and dialogue.

It seems Hakim was present in one of these groups and may be referring to the four or five at her table when she writes, “I noticed there were no Pueblo or Tewa people in attendance.” Hakim did not preregister for the event; it was not required. Others who did not preregister attended and, because we didn’t ask for race/ethnicity at the event, we can’t attest to the ancestry of everyone who was there. But we do have information from those who preregistered and attended. Over the course of the last 9½ months of the CHART project, more than 1,000 residents of the city and county of Santa Fe have actively participated in the project through surveys, dialogue sessions, art activations, cultural history talks, one-on-one interviews and more.

The CHART team has worked diligently to reach and engage the diverse citizenry of the city and county — Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, white, African American/Black, AAPI, biracial/mixed race, and others. We encourage Journal readers to visit our website, chartsantafe.com, and watch quarterly updates from the CHART project to the city of Santa Fe governing body to learn about project reach and engagement.

VALERIE MARTINEZ AND JENICE CHARIB Co-directors, CHART

Santa Fe