Is the Entrada headed for an exit?
Church, pueblos, city discussing big changes to the Santa Fe event
Has Santa Fe seen its last Entrada? It may well have, with the recent passage of a resolution by the All Pueblo Council of Governors, which also has the support of Archbishop John Wester and Mayor Javier Gonzales.
The pueblo governors and the mayor want a replacement event focusing on the Santa Fe area’s coexistence of cultures.
Wester and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, meanwhile, are ready to issue an apology for the sins of colonists in New Mexico, part of an effort at reconciliation after Native American protests have grown in intensity during the Entrada over the past three years.
The pageant is a religious, costumed reenactment of the reoccupation of Santa Fe by the Spanish 12 years after they were forced out during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
Still somewhat on the fence are the Entrada’s organizers, who say they are ready to make changes, but still want the event to be staged on the city’s historic Plaza as part of the annual Fiesta de Santa Fe.
“I would like to heal all of this,” said Thomas Baca, the new president of Caballeros de Vargas, which stages the Entrada. “I want everybody to be on the same page so we’re not offending anybody and nobody is offending us. It’s not about offending anybody, it’s about peace. That’s what this is about, and that’s what we’re celebrating.”
Since September’s Entrada, the pueblo governors, city government and the archdiocese have been working behind the scenes to resolve the racial tensions surrounding the re-enactment. Neither Fiesta representatives nor protesters have been included.
While Fiesta organizers say the Entrada is meant to commemorate a day in 1692 when Spanish and Native American people agreed to live together in peace, many Native people see it as something much different. They say the Entrada is revisionist history and a celebration of Spanish conquest and repression of indigenous culture and religion.
The pueblo governor’s proclamation, approved on a 12-0 vote and signed Dec. 14 by council chairman E. Paul Torres, states that the Entrada “fails to accurately recognize the truth” of what actually happened in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Regis Pecos, a former governor of Cochiti Pueblo and current codirector of the Leadership Institute on the campus of Santa Fe Indian School, served as facilitator of the discussions between the pueblos, the city and the church.
Pecos notes that the resolution culminates in what he called “five principles necessary to reach an ultimate reconciliation.”
One calls for the parties to collectively “redefine a commemorative event that captures the true spirit of coexistence and honor our principles of mutual respect to be shared by all.”
Asked if that would mean the end of Entrada, Pecos said, “I think at this stage of discussions, I don’t want to be premature, but I think we’re well on that track.”
Mayor Gonzales — whose family has been deeply ingrained in the Entrada and who himself played the lead role of Spanish General Don Diego de Vargas during the 1989 performance — concurred that Santa Fe may never see another Entrada, at least not in its current form.
“The Entrada as it exists today is serving more as a divisive event for a lot of different reasons,” he said. “The fact that for many generations families have intermixed and shared in each other’s cultures, it’s critically important that we move past the portrayal that has been so hurtful and has worked to divide our community.”
And changes have to happen before next September, he said. Though Gonzales has just a little more than two months left as mayor, he said the groundwork has been laid for his successor to see it through.
The city holds a lot of leverage over the Fiesta and the Entrada. It issues the permit to the Fiesta Council each year for use of the Plaza and provides about $50,000 to advertise the Fiesta.
Archbishop Wester attended an Indigenous Peoples’ Day event on the Plaza in October, about a month after this year’s protested Entrada. He said then that the Entrada re-enactment had to change.
“It is the archbishop’s hope that it becomes a celebration for all people,” said Allen Sanchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, who has been involved in the discussions. “But before there can be celebration, there has to be reconciliation.”
Sanchez said to expect a formal apology by Wester for the cruelty and harm that was inflicted when the colonists imposed their religion upon the native people to be issued some time early in the new year.
“This is in line with what Pope Francis has already done,” he said.
In July, while visiting Bolivia, Pope Francis asked forgiveness for the “many grave sins” committed against indigenous people in Latin America during colonial times.
In Santa Fe, such history is complicated. The Fiesta includes a religious procession to the Cross of the Martyrs overlooking downtown, which commemorates 21 Franciscan priests killed during the Pueblo Revolt.
While not part of the governors’ proclamation, Pecos said pueblo people have a responsibility to accept the apology in order to complete the circle of reconciliation. He said it’s also important for the pueblo people to acknowledge that their ancestors had to some degree forgiven the Spanish for their actions.
“There was a time of forgiveness that took place hundreds of years ago that resulted in pueblo leaders — despite the atrocities that they experienced and were subjected to — to pardon those actions and that led to them to embracing Catholicism and the immersion of Catholicism into the pueblo way of life,” he said, adding that pueblo people also grew to accept the Spanish secular form of government.
Left out of the discussion so far have been several key parties: the Fiesta Council, the Caballeros de Vargas and the Native American protestors.
Pecos said: “We do not mean to exclude anyone from the process, but to initially keep the discussion at the highest level — with representatives of the pueblo governments, the city government and the church — so that we could have that discussion with the clear intent being that they would move toward building a consensus among all parties.
“Each of the groups represented would then have the responsibility to have dialogue in their own way with individuals at other levels and at the appropriate time.”
That time appears to have come now. Mayor Gonzales met last week with Melissa Mascarenas of the Santa Fe Fiesta Council and Baca, the Caballeros president.
Baca said he also has a planned meeting with the archdiocese. “I think we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.
Baca also has taken it upon himself to reach out to other groups.
In November, he sent letters to each of the 19 pueblos asking for one-on-one meetings with the governors to discuss what could be done to make the Entrada more inclusive and non-offensive.
Pecos said the pueblos’ leadership will be responsible for having dialogue with the protesters.
It may be a tough sell. Demonstrators still say that holding anything resembling the Entrada on the city’s Plaza is unacceptable.
“We can sit down and talk, but nothing short of getting it off the Plaza and getting them out of the schools is not going to work. Not anymore. Not after last year,” said Elena Ortiz, a Santa Fean from Ohkay Owingeh who heads up In the Spirit of Po’Pay, a Native American rights group named for the leader of the Pueblo Revolt.
In an interview in December, Gilbert Romero, a past president of the Fiesta Council, said the organization would be happy to engage in discussions about how to make the Entrada a more inclusive event. But he said the Fiesta Council would prefer not to move it from the Plaza because the performance has traditionally been held there.
Baca also said he didn’t want to see it moved from the Plaza.
“I respect the protesters and I respect their point of view, and I wish they would respect us, as well,” he said.
Baca says the Entrada commemorates an important date that shaped the future, and he’s proud to be a part of it.
“Without that day, I don’t think we would have the New Mexico we have today,” he said.