Building named for late political boss raises ire
Naranjo was a Democratic Party chairman, sheriff, state senator — but critics cast him as corrupt
Several critics of the late Rio Arriba County political strongman Emilio Naranjo expressed outrage Monday that the county’s governing body renamed the Rio Arriba County Annex Building in Española the Emilio Naranjo Building.
Naranjo, who died at the age of 92 in 2008, held a number of public positions in Rio Arriba beginning in the 1950s — including Democratic Party county chairman, county sheriff and state senator — and was as controversial as he was powerful.
“In the era of fake news and rewriting history, it is still a shock to learn that the Rio Arriba County Commission, County Manager and staff have changed the name of the Rio Arriba County Annex to the Emilio Naranjo Building,” longtime Northern New Mexico political activist Carol Miller of Ojo Sarco said in an email Monday. “It is outrageous to name a public building for a serial violator of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as a convicted perjurer.”
She said she plans to ask the County Commission to reconsider the name.
But Naranjo’s nephew, former Rio Arriba County Commissioner Alex Naranjo, said Monday his uncle deserves to be honored. Alex Naranjo introduced the resolution calling for the name change in December, shortly before he left office.
“He was a public servant for 50 years,” Alex Naranjo said. “My uncle was a legend in Northern New Mexico. I’m very proud of him.”
Alex Naranjo said several hundred people attended a ceremony in late December to dedicate the building to his uncle.
Miller was among the Emilio Naranjo critics who said Monday they had not been aware of any public ceremony.
Miller said she was checking the schedule for this month’s commission meeting when she noticed the meeting would be held in a building now named for the deceased political boss.
The Rio Arriba County Commission approved the naming at a special meeting on Dec. 13.
Only one of the three current county commissioners was in office when the proposal passed.
The resolution states that Emilio Naranjo was “a force to be reckoned with in Rio Arriba County politics for over 50 years”; that “books have been written about Mr. Naranjo celebrating his life and accomplishments”; that Naranjo “served his community as the Rio Arriba County manager, the Rio Arriba County sheriff, a New Mexico state senator and United States marshal”; and that Naranjo “helped countless friends, family members and community residents through his dedication and commitment to his community.”
Minutes of the meeting indicate the resolution passed without objection or discussion.
That wasn’t the only naming resolution the commission passed that night.
Alex Naranjo also introduced resolutions to name the San Pedro Senior Center after Dan Roybal, an Española school board member in the late 1950s and early 1960s; a park in San Pedro after Joe Romero, a former legislator who chaired the Española school board; and a park in Alcalde after Cameron Nolan Martinez, a former high school basketball player who was killed last year in a drive-by shooting. Like the action on the Emilio Naranjo Building, all of the resolutions passed unanimously with no discussion, the minutes show.
Other longtime critics of Emilio Naranjo expressed dismay over the decision to put his name on the building.
Richard Rosenstock, a lawyer who frequently represented Naranjo’s political opponents, said Monday he thought it remarkable that the commission would honor an official who had been convicted of perjury — though an appeals court later overturned the conviction — and had been sued numerous times on claims of civil rights violations.
Moises Morales, a former Rio Arriba County clerk and county commissioner, who in 1975 was framed by then-Sheriff Naranjo’s deputies in connection with a marijuana arrest, said, “I think it’s kind of sad.”
Morales was acquitted in a drug trial and Emilio Naranjo, who by then was a state senator, in 1978 was tried and convicted of perjury for lying on the witness stand. However, Appeals Court Judge Lewis Sutton overturned the conviction in 1980. Naranjo was allowed to return to the New Mexico Senate, where he held a seat until 1996, when he was defeated in the Democratic primary by Ojo Caliente grocer Arthur Rodarte.
Antonio “Ike” DeVargas, a former chairman of La Raza Unida Party — which opposed Emilio Naranjo — sued the sheriff in the mid-1970s on a claim that deputies planted drugs in his home and eventually was awarded about $35,000.
“In the first place, I don’t like public buildings being named for people,” he said Monday. But the main reason DeVargas said he’s unhappy is, “I was framed by Emilio Naranjo. He used to frame a lot of his political opponents.”
Both DeVargas and Morales said it was ironic that the county annex building was named for their old foe. “He had nothing to do with this building,” Morales said. “He was too busy making money by renting his own buildings for county offices.”
Retired state District Judge Art Encinias — who worked as a prosecutor for the state Attorney General’s Office in cases involving Emilio Naranjo — was sardonic about the news. He said Monday he hadn’t heard about the building being named for the one-time political boss.
“But I’m not surprised,” he said. “Lots of buildings are named for scoundrels.”