Fiesta de Santa Fe: It opens old wounds
Fiesta de Santa Fe is here, celebrating the bloodless reconquest of New Mexico with food, drink and dancing. Also, there will be the annual protest at the Entrada ceremony.
Fiesta commemorates the return of Spanish colonists to New Mexico after being forced out by the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. The pueblos in New Mexico rose up together and overthrew the Spanish occupation of their homelands. Commemorating the return of our ancestors to this land that we love and where we have lived for so many generations has meaning and purpose for us. But we can honor our antepasados at Fiesta de Santa Fe without distorting history.
Resettlement of New Mexico by Spanish colonists was not a peaceful reoccupation but was instead a bloody reconquest with war lasting until 1696. Don Diego de Vargas came to Santa Fe in 1692 on an expedition to find out if it was feasible for colonists to resettle New Mexico. The coalition that Po’Pay built had weakened over the years and de Vargas was able to subdue resistance in Santa Fe by rolling out a cannon. Meeting no further hostilities, he believed it was time to return. In 1693, when de Vargas came back with families and livestock, the
In 1712, when the first Fiesta was held, colonists knew that reoccupation had not been peaceful. They lived through the war and had lost relatives and friends. It probably was a solemn event.
reaction was swift, battles were fought and there was blood on the ground.
“Bloodless reconquest” invokes an image of Pueblo people surrendering without a fight, which is completely wrong. Pueblo people responded with an intense war of resistance. The fighting was carried on through various alliances of Pueblos and Spanish against other Pueblos ending in reconquest. With reconquest came changes in the behavior of the colonists and their priests. The new relationship evolved because colonists knew that continuing the previous treatment of Pueblo people would lead to war, and the colonists and Pueblos needed each other. Raids by Navajos, Apaches, Kiowa, Utes and Comanches had increased over the years because of the availability of horses. The need for common defense brought neighbors together.
Injuries take time to heal. If the scab on a wound is regularly pulled at, it remains raw and painful. That is what happens every year when Fiesta begins with the claim that it is a celebration of a “bloodless reconquest.”
In 1712, when the first Fiesta was held, colonists knew that reoccupation had not been peaceful. They lived through the war and had lost relatives and friends. It probably was a solemn event.
Learning the history of those times is something anyone interested in this controversy should do. In books and online there is an abundance of fascinating information. Hopefully, people will learn to approach each other’s heritage with thoughtfulness and respect.
Roberto Gallegos, a native New Mexican from Albuquerque, is an artist living in Santa Fe for more than a quarter of a century (but still a Burquéno).