Portraying Entrada as peaceful harms history

In response to Manuel Garcia’s My View (“An Entrada narrative,” Sept. 3), I have to wonder what rose-colored planet Garcia is inhabiting when he says, “The purpose of the play [the Entrada] is to bring forth the story of the peaceful reconciliation of the two cultures, Native American and Spanish.”

I was mulling this over on Sunday afternoon as I drove to Jemez Springs to visit friends. I stopped at the Walatowa Visitor Center on Jemez Pueblo and had another look at a graphic I had seen many times before. It conveyed the following: Prior to the first contact with the Spanish in 1540, the Jemez Pueblo had a population of about 30,000 people. 1680 was the year of the Pueblo Revolt, and the Spanish had been occupying the land for 140 years. The population of the Jemez Pueblo was down to 5,000. By 1706, 14 years after the Entrada — that “peaceful reconquest” — the pueblo’s population was down to 300 people.

Fortunately, according to this graphic, Jemez Pueblo’s population is now more than 3,000, as of the 2000 census. But how, if the Entrada was such a “peaceful reconciliation,” did the population decline so drastically in the years afterward? I think we all know the answers to that question. The answers are neither happy nor peaceful.

I admire what the author is saying when he goes on to say that, “We hope as a community we can come together to share ideas of how the Entrada can … be a more inclusive community event — one that helps to heal the ills of the past and celebrates the many cultures that build the great community of Santa Fe.”

However, to portray the Entrada as peaceful, or somehow an event that was mutually beneficial, is to do harm to history. Frankly, I do not think repeated re-enactments of the Entrada will ever “help heal the ills of the past.” I do think there is plenty to celebrate about the Hispanic culture of Northern New Mexico without involving the Entrada. Why don’t we just do that, and make it a joyful celebration that is truly respectful of the other cultures we value.