Mayor’s wall missing Debbie
Aframed photograph of me interviewing George W. Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign occupies prime wall space in my Chicago office. Of all the items crowding that wall, visitors always gravitate to that one, mistaking it for an expression of admiration.
Few, if any, pay mind to the photo beside it — the one that depicts me interviewing Santa Fe’s mayor-elect on election night 1994 — but that’s because most Chicagoans don’t know Santa Fe history. Surely, if I still lived in Santa Fe, a framed photograph of former Santa Fe Mayor Debbie Jaramillo and me would rate as the No. 1 eye-catcher, provoking a mix of misguided assumptions. Some would take it for tribute, others would see it as ersatz esteem, and a few might even infer insult.
None is true. The truth is, Debbie and George are on my wall for exact same reason.
Blasphemy. I know. I get that. I understand that a majority of Debbie’s supporters in 1994 were likely staunch opponents of George in 2000 and vice versa. No doubt, those two congregations shared few followers. People either loved or hated each one. Still, both prevailed to make history, and seeing those photographs whenever I sit down to write reminds me of all I learned from, and because of, them — lessons too numerous to summarize here.
We as a society hang portraits of our former leaders in government halls of power for similar reasons. To remember. A wall of such portraits has long existed at Santa Fe City Hall, a city as proud of its history as it is adamant about preserving it.
I know that wall well, having spent hours pacing in front of it and sitting on the floor beneath it while working as a city hall reporter for The New Mexican in the early to mid-1990s. That’s the part of journalism nobody talks about — the waiting.
Sam Pick was the mayor when I started that job and, despite the city’s difficulties, he remained the king of smiles, which in hindsight is somewhat remarkable considering the dysfunction that surrounded him. There had been three lawsuits between the sitting city councilors and the mayor. Angry shouting often brought public debates to a halt. And the public comment portion of City Council meetings routinely consumed hours.
Sam clearly loved being mayor, but ultimately chose not to seek re-election.
“Given enough time, you probably make a majority of the people in the community angry,” he told me a few weeks prior to announcing his final decision. “It’s that kind of job.” No doubt, lots of people loved Sam, and lots of people didn’t.
Still, Sam’s portrait continues to hang on that wall of mayors in City Hall. Sam happened, and the city remembers.
Yet, a portrait of one former mayor — Debbie Jaramillo — reportedly disappeared from that wall and has yet to be replaced. The New Mexican reported this fact four years ago.
The omission is as inexcusable as it is ironic.
It’s ironic because, like Debbie’s missing City Hall portrait, much of her legacy is evidenced by what isn’t in Santa Fe.
It’s all the shiny rooftops that never got built on the hillsides. It’s the chain stores that don’t dominate the Plaza. It’s the imposing, new structures that haven’t replaced the humble, historic ones.
Good or bad, Debbie’s election was a change of direction for Santa Fe. She happened, and that’s why it’s inexcusable for city leaders to show such a lack of regard all these years. Four years and still missing. What’s the Winston Churchill quote inscribed on the old state records building at the intersection of Guadalupe Street and Montezuma Avenue? “A nation that forgets its past has no future.”
Future is all Debbie ever talked about, yet, four years gone and her portrait is still absent from City Hall.
This isn’t about what happened during Debbie’s administration. All that matters is that it happened. That’s the only reason any of those pictures are on that wall. Should the debate become about what happened during each of those administrations, I can guarantee more than a couple of the oldest mayoral portraits are bound to come down for good.
This is about history. It’s about all the little girls in Santa Fe who visit their City Hall and look at that wall and see only men, despite the fact that Debbie was the first, and still only, female mayor of Santa Fe, elected with nearly 40 percent of the vote from a field of 12 candidates in an election that set a record for numerical voter turnout.
Which brings me back to my office wall and the picture of George W. and me. The election that took place a couple months later was historic, the vote count so close we all went to bed unsure of who the next president would be. It took a month to find out for sure, when a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the recount and made George W. our 43rd president. People either loved him or hated him. Bad things happened. War. Recession. Doesn’t matter. He happened, and for that reason his portrait still hangs in the White House.
Presidents. Mayors. No difference. All politics is local. History happens and we mark it. Whatever the reason Debbie’s portrait has been absent from the wall of mayors at City Hall can’t possibly excuse the omission.
The local news coverage suggests Debbie isn’t all that upset about it. But right is right. Four years and counting.