Santa Fe has a story worth telling
The question, “Who deserves a statue?” can’t be answered, despite our best efforts. One person’s hero is another person’s villain, and so it has been and will be throughout history. A freedom fighter can be a terrorist, depending on perspective. Rebels against the government can be either traitors or trailblazers setting a new path, should they win. One generation’s radical is seen as forward-thinking a few decades later.
Perspective changes as we change, as our values change and, we trust, as our nation moves ever more firmly toward justice.
As Santa Fe joins the nation in debating which historical figures to honor and how, we respectfully submit that we are asking the wrong question.
It’s not whether Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas is more worthy of a statue than, say, Po’Pay, leader of the Pueblo Revolt. It’s not even that both leaders might be worth remembering, for their mistakes as well as their successes.
No, de Vargas and Po’Pay are part of a bigger narrative, the story of New Mexico and how it came to be. Rather than focus on individuals, it’s time to place them amid a larger narrative. That way, our history can be presented in all its context and complexity.
The next question to ask, of course, is whether a more nuanced presentation of history can happen in a park or on the Plaza. Should statues to the “great men” of history be delegated to museums and public art be designed more for entertainment? There’s room for both, and frankly, a need for both.
But as Santa Fe considers the next steps on how its history will be displayed in public, our community should reflect on how current memorials and monuments can become part of the city’s larger story. The tale, as it were, of how Santa Fe came to be.
Ohkay Owingeh tribal member Matthew J. Martinez, also deputy director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, has the starting place of our story exactly right. In the city of Santa Fe, we need what he calls a “land acknowledgment of Ogha Po’oge,” the White Shell Water Place, the original place name of our town, Martinez told reporter Daniel J. Chacón.
Martinez, who has a doctorate from the University of Minnesota in American Studies and American Indian Studies, believes — and he’s right — the acknowledgment of the origins of Santa Fe must be the first step in any discussion about monuments.
Already, the city has seen ugly vandalism at the Plaza obelisk, disdained for a plaque on the side dedicated to “heroes” who fought in the Indian wars of the 19th century. The description of their Native foes was scratched out decades ago but remains painful for Indigenous people.
Several groups have demanded the obelisk be removed, along with the de Vargas statue in Cathedral Park (gone for now) and the Kit Carson memorial by the federal courthouse. Carson, too, is a controversial figure because of his actions removing Navajo people for the U.S. government.
Mayor Alan Webber has promised to have discussions about the best way forward, to the point of establishing a truth and reconciliation commission to consider Santa Fe’s past. The removal of the de Vargas statue has caused pain among many in the local Hispano community; their contention is that the man who brought the Spanish back to Santa Fe and New Mexico deserves to be remembered, despite his faults.
The obelisk, to many, belongs on the Plaza. Why? Because it has been there all their lives — since the late 1860s — and two sides of the obelisk honor Civil War victories in which New Mexico soldiers played important roles in stopping the Confederacy.
None of this is easy to resolve, but if we step back and consider not the individuals but their place in our common story, it becomes clear what needs to be done. As we have written before, the model for how Santa Fe can present its history in public places should be the Freedom Trail in Boston. Walking through Boston, any visitor or local can see the locations where important moments in early U.S. history occurred. Yet in Santa Fe, with a longer history — both pre- and post-European — there is no cohesive telling of our story.
Start with the White Shell Water Place, Santa Fe’s name before written history. Find a way to explain the name and why it matters, whether with a marker or a statue. The Spanish will be part of the story, told through the eyes of the conquerors, or perhaps more effectively, through the experiences of the people who came with them — farmers, weavers and the ordinary people with the gumption to put down roots in this harsh land. There should be a place during this story to honor the Pueblo men who lost their lives after de Vargas took back the city; women and children suffered, too. They are martyrs, just as the priests are, executed during the revolt and remembered at the Cross of the Martyrs.
The tale will continue past the early days, the coming of the Spaniards, to the days of the Santa Fe Trail (the marker’s already there) to more modern times (the plaque marking 108 E. Palace, from the Manhattan Project era, is in place as well).
The conversations and protests over our history have been difficult. We are hurting. Let’s turn those hard feelings into hard work, aimed at better telling the story of Santa Fe — it remains an inspiring one, with room for all the people who have lived here over the centuries.