Race and Remembrance in New Mexico
By 
New Mexico’s race relations are fascinating and unique. I wrote a piece here back in 2015 laying this out. So I’ll just quote from that to begin.
Race and history in New Mexico are contested in a way unique to the United States. This has to do with discrete historical events that took place in the Land of Enchantment and the layers of conquest the state deals with today. What you had in 16th century New Mexico was a lot of small, semi-sedentary tribes (the Puebloan peoples) with some larger, raiding tribes on the edges like the some of the Apache groups and the Navajo. When the Spanish sought to expand their control north of the central Mexican silver regions, they followed the same basic trail that indigenous people used in their trading networks, going up the Rio Grande and originally establishing a capital at what the Spanish would later term San Juan Pueblo (unlike the other Pueblos, the people of San Juan have reclaimed their indigenous name and now are referred to as Ohkay Owingeh. This just happened in the last few years). The Spanish were led by Juan de Oñate, a would be next-Cortes or Pizarro who hoped to find gold and silver farther north. When Oñate arrived in New Mexico, he kicked the Ohkay Owingeh out of their homes, expected the native peoples to feed and house and work for them, and basically treated them like conquered people. When they resisted, he responded harshly, particularly at Acoma Pueblo. On a mesa west of modern-day Albuquerque, the Acoma had a great natural defense and thus took a major toll on the Spanish forces. But the Spanish eventually conquered Acoma. Several hundred Acoma were killed. More notoriously, Oñate ordered a foot cut off of all men over the age of 25 to show Spanish resolve, although only 24 actually received this punishment. The Acoma were sent into slavery, although they eventually returned and the pueblo exists today.
This is the first major racially contested event in New Mexican history. The second is the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when the pueblos united, except for Laguna which stayed with the Spanish, to kick the Spanish out of New Mexico. This is the only successful Indian revolt in the history of the Americas. They mutilated the priests, burned the churches, and tried to reinstate pre-Spanish life. This didn’t prove possible. It seems that they leaders of the revolt were fundamentalists of a sort and a lot of people didn’t want to give up their European livestock, guns, pots, etc. So divisions developed. This event caused a major panic among the Spanish, who saw it (rightfully as it turned out) as a sign of their nation’s waning power and inability to control its northern frontier. They were exiled to El Paso, where in 1692, led by Don Diego de Vargas, the Spanish came back north and took the pueblos back over. While the violence involved here wasn’t as brutal as what led to the Pueblo Revolt, it was a military conquest with a lot of casualties. In the aftermath, a weak Spanish state had to ally with its reconquered pueblos to battle the newly powerful Comanche, Apache, and Navajo, all of whom benefited from the horses the Spanish left behind in 1680 to establish themselves as powerful military forces. That’s especially true of the Comanche, who was the most powerful nation between the English colonies and the Pacific in the late 18th century, including the Spanish.
That’s the second major racially contested event in New Mexican history. The third is the U.S. takeover of New Mexico during the Mexican War and the subsequent dispossession of the Spanish land grants later in the 19th century. The establishment of American-style white supremacy in New Mexico, which certainly never fit the American racial binary and which the U.S. had no idea what to do with (thus New Mexico did not become a state until 1912 despite easily meeting the population requirements. But could these people be citizens? Not according to many white Americans), challenged the Spanish elite. This led to the myth of Spanish purity that elite Hispano New Mexicans (including I believe the current governor, Susanna Martinez) hold on to. This states that many Spanish never intermixed with Indian blood and thus are pure-blooded European and white. This is totally absurd and without real evidence at all. Theoretically I suppose it is possible, but c’mon. I guess Oñate’s troops are the only troops in the history of American conquest who never saw indigenous people as potential sexual conquests. But the elites of New Mexico hold on to this fiercely because it was their claim to whiteness and power in a time when it was challenged. That they still hold on to it today is frustrating because a) you know, it’s OK to be Mexican in 2015 and b) it’s really about class and elite status as much as about race and so it’s still about exclusionary politics. When I was at the University of New Mexico teaching History of New Mexico courses, I had students drop them because I said the myth of pure Spanish blood was ridiculous.
All of this leads to a racial politics unlike anything else in the U.S. because all three groups–indigenous, Hispano (the preferred term there) and Anglos (which covers every non-Spanish white person from English to Jews; you can guess how much my Irish-American wife loved being called an Anglo) are in New Mexico in large numbers, each with access to power and official narratives of history. What’s largely happened is a sort of myth of racial peace where all three groups get along. It’s a good way not to talk about these things too much. What’s really happened of course is that Anglos are rich and living in Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, and nice neighborhoods of Albuquerque, Hispanos are of mixed economic status but with a lot of poverty, and Indians are poor. And note that this is really only a story about northern Mexico. Eastern and southern New Mexico are largely totally excluded from all of this; there you mostly have white ranchers and oil towns with large Mexican populations that look a lot more like Texas or Arizona.
So given this history, the rise of our new era of tearing down statues of racists has been particularly fraught. For instance, let’s go back to this 2018 story about people who claim pure Spanish heritage engaging in their own unique form of white nationalism.
Things recently came to a head at an Española City Council meeting, where supporters of the fiestas petitioned to have the sponsorship of the event transferred to a non-profit to avoid city oversight of the parade. Their arguments for honoring Oñate were…interesting to say the least.
Many of the Oñate proponents in attendance made sure to reference the “common blood and culture” they share with New Mexico’s indigenous people, but this was little more than cover to excuse their abhorrent support of Oñate. After all, if they actually DID have any respect for this “common blood and culture,” they would take the concerns of Indigenous people into consideration. I mean, surely we can commemorate our shared history in a way that is dignified, inclusive, and respectful, right?
The most telling moment of the evening came when a pro-Oñate historian (and I use the term “historian” loosely), argued that the Spanish colonization of New Mexico was inevitable, and that white hispanos should be seen as native to the area. Because, you know, all it takes to be native is to be born somewhere. This ahistorical argument is designed to gradually obfuscate who is and isn’t a “native” person, thus enabling white hispanos to lay some sort of ancestral claim to New Mexico. It is an intellectually dishonest tactic, demonstrating a clear disregard for New Mexico’s numerous indigenous communities.
What this reveals about the Oñate supporters is that they really aren’t concerned with “preserving culture” at all. Rather, they have embraced a pointedly ethnocentric position that seeks to privilege the legacy of European conquest by any means necessary. Framing European colonization as an inevitable form of “manifest destiny” and declaring that their descendants are now “natives” is a hallmark of settler colonialism. Australian writer and historian Patrick Wolfe calls this strategy “destroy to replace.”
Whatever settlers may say— and they generally have a lot to say—the primary motive for elimination is not race (or religion, ethnicity, grade of civilization, etc.) but access to territory. Territoriality is settler colonialism’s specific, irreducible element.
– Patrick WolfeThe underlying intent of the pro-Oñate fiestas is not to preserve any sort of cultural traditions, but to distort New Mexico’s history to the point that its Indigenous people are merely footnotes in a pre-ordained historical legacy written by and for white people. Glorifying men like Juan de Oñate is a central part of this process.
You’ve probably now heard of the shooting in Albuquerque at the protest over the Oñate statue there. Not surprisingly, the shooter has a very traditional name of the New Mexicans who claim this pure heritage.
On Tuesday, the authorities in Bernalillo County filed a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon against the man with the gun, identified as Steven Baca, 31. Mr. Baca was not charged with assaulting the protesters during the mayhem preceding the shooting, and the police said in their criminal complaint that a “group appeared to maliciously pursue Steven.”
Police leaders in Albuquerque did not immediately explain why there was an absence of uniformed officers at the location, effectively allowing the armed militia to wield control over the scene until officers in riot gear appeared.
“We are receiving reports about vigilante groups possibly instigating this violence,” Chief Michael Geier of the Albuquerque Police Department said on Twitter Monday night. “If this is true will be holding them accountable to the fullest extent of the law, including federal hate group designation and prosecution.”
The protest turned into pandemonium after the shooting, as protesters screamed and dove for cover and police officers attempted to secure the scene.
While I obviously don’t know what Baca’s background actually is, it fits into the larger pattern. Another larger pattern is the utter worthlessness of the Albuquerque Police Department. What you need to know about the APD is that it consists of what would happen if you took the worst of the NYPD, the worst of the LAPD, and the worst of the Chicago PD and put them all in a city no one cares about. When I lived there, the time when bars closed downtown was a nightly routine of cops on horses beating the shit out of brown people. I saw blood flowing in the streets–no exaggeration, flowing–in the streets on two occasions when I was out late.
But here’s the real kicker about this story. Everyone always wondered what had actually happened to the foot taken off the Oñate statue in Alcade.
At one point during the protest, Oñate’s foot even made a surprise appearance. Three men wearing masks carried the bronze foot, taken all those years ago, to the entrance of Tiguex Park near the statue, and briefly held the foot aloft.
One of the men was Brian Hardgroove, a bass player for the hip-hop group Public Enemy. Mr. Hardgroove, who lives in New Mexico and has worked as an artist in residence at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, said he came to express support for solidarity between Native Americans and African-Americans.
“Carrying this foot is a powerful act of resistance,” Mr. Hardgroove said.
Someone has just had it in their garage for a few decades or something! And they brought it out for this! And the bass player for Public Enemy was in on it! Here’s more about the mystery of the foot.
New Mexico is a hell of a place.