Man shot at Abq. protest over Oñate art piece
A demonstration in Albuquerque on Monday evening aimed at calling for the removal of a likeness of Spanish conqueror Juan de Oñate was marred by the shooting of a man outside the Albuquerque Museum, KOB-TV reported.
An Albuquerque police spokesman said the man was taken to the hospital after the shooting. His condition was not known.
Protesters gathered outside the museum Monday, and KOB-TV reported armed members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a civilian group, were on the scene of the protest. As protesters moved to remove the metal sculpture, shots rang out.
“The shooting tonight was a tragic, outrageous and unacceptable act of violence and it has no place in our city,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement.
Keller added: “This sculpture has now become an urgent matter of public safety. In order to contain the public safety risk, the city will be removing the statue until the appropriate civic institutions can determine next steps.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also released a statement on the shooting.
“Although we are still learning more about the situation, I am horrified and disgusted beyond words by the reports of violence at a protest Monday night in Albuquerque,” she said in a statement. “The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a ‘civil guard,’ were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force. To menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry — with an implicit threat of violence — is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.”
The event took place hours after an Oñate monument in
Alcalde, north of Española, was removed by Rio Arriba County crews ahead of a protest that some officials feared could lead to the statue’s destruction.
Oñate, who arrived in present-day New Mexico in 1598, is celebrated as a cultural father figure in communities along the Upper Rio Grande that trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers. But he’s also reviled for his brutality.
The protests in New Mexico come as monuments to European conquerors and colonists around the world are being pulled down amid an intense reexamination of racial injustices in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolist.
Albuquerque city officials announced Saturday they will convene a council of community leaders and artists to consider the concerns about the public art piece as they look for “creative solutions.”
Titled La Jornada, the sculpture depicts Oñate leading a group of Spanish settlers to what was then the northern-most province of New Spain in 1598. The collection of statues includes an indigenous guide, a priest, women settlers and soldiers. The names of the families who accompanied Oñate are listed on plaques below as part of the “Wall of Spanish Ancestral Heritage.”
“Recent calls for altering La Jornada remind us that works of art often challenge communities to debate ideas, pursue empathy, grapple with multiple perspectives, reconcile conflict and interrogate history,” said Shelle Sanchez, head of the city’s Cultural Services Department.
La Jornada is one of two pieces on museum property that were installed to reflect part of New Mexico’s history, city officials said. The other by artist Nora Naranjo Morse of Santa Clara Pueblo is meant to be a place of solace and reflection that was commissioned as a response to the caravan.