La Reina, Don Diego named for La Fiesta
Roles include number of other public appearances
Katherine Elizabeth García y Arellano was named La Reina de La Fiesta de Santa Fe for 2018 during Saturday night’s Baile de Mayo at Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
She won the role over two other contestants Thursday, but the results were sealed until the annual dance.
“I am excited,” García y Arellano, 26, said in a phone interview Saturday night from the convention center following the announcement. “I cannot wait for the journey this summer.”
She was most looking forward to bringing the community together and getting people involved in the local events, she said.
The role of La Reina includes public appearances throughout the year at a number of events both before and after the Fiesta de Santa Fe, which commemorates Don Diego de Vargas’ re-entry into Santa Fe in 1692, after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove the Spanish out.
García y Arellano is a 2010 graduate of St. Michael’s High School. She earned degrees in psychology and criminology at The University of New Mexico and now works at the New Mexico Department of Public Safety as a program coordinator in the Law Enforcement
Records Bureau, according to a news release from the Santa Fe Fiesta Council.
The competition wasn’t as fierce for the role of Don Diego de Vargas. This year’s sole competitor was Bobby Facundo Trujillo y Aldaz, 37. He graduated from Santa Fe High School in 1998 and joined the military. He was in the U.S. Army National Guard and in 2004 fought in Iraq, according to the Fiesta Council’s news release.
Trujillo y Aldaz is an accountant and auditor for the New Mexico State Land Office, the news release said.
Trujillo y Aldaz said he wasn’t certain why he was the only candidate to portray de Vargas in the Fiesta pageantry this year. Regardless, he said, he feels honored to take on the role.
“It’s just a dream come true, since the very first time I saw this as a young child,” he said. “I’m honored … that I did my best and gave it all my heart to get the Don Diego de Vargas [role].”
The Native American Princess for this year’s Fiesta is Alaina White of Ohkay Owingeh. White, 26, graduated from Española Valley High School and earned an associate degree at Northern New Mexico College. She has two children and works at Fastbucks of Española.
The 2018 Fiesta de Santa Fe will be held Sept. 1-9 on the Plaza. Don Diego de Vargas and La Reina will be officially crowned at 1 p.m. June 10 at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, followed by a procession to the Rosario Chapel for the novena masses in honor of Las Conquistadora, the Marian statue de Vargas brought to the city.