Fiesta to allow married or divorced ‘La Reina’

SANTA FE — Organizers of an annual Santa Fe fiesta that once honored a 17th-century Spanish conquistador have changed rules for the high-profile role of La Reina.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports organizers of the centuries-old Fiesta de Santa Fe announced this week they are scrapping a long-standing requirement that only single women without children could serve as Fiesta queen.

Under the new rules, contestants now can be married, divorced or widowed, and have children.

It’s the latest in a series of changes to the Fiesta de Santa Fe. The council last year agreed to eliminate the Entrada, a controversial re-enactment of Spanish conquistadors retaking Santa Fe from Native Americans 12 years after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.