I have to confess I am confused about all the fuss about Juan de Oñate. He’s a Spanish conquistador who took over what is now New Mexico in the late 16th and early 17th Centuries. On that score, I can understand why he’s culturally significant to the descendants of those settlements. But I think his legacy should have been settled during his lifetime.
The settlements he and his colonists established were the first European settlements in what is now the southwestern United States. Oñate demanded that the indigenous population pledge loyalty to Spain and the Pope, an edict enforced by Spanish soldiers.
As subjects of Spain, the indigenous population was required to pay taxes and tribute to the Spanish crown. In 1599, the Acoma refused to deliver the required “food tax” to the Spanish. An altercation ensued, and the Acoma killed 13 Spaniards, including Oñate’s nephew. Oñate ordered that the village be destroyed. There were only about 200 Acoma survivors out of a population of nearly 2,000. Indian men of fighting age were sentenced to foot amputation, followed by 20 years of servitude. Others were sentenced to the amputation of their hands. Children were sent to Mexico to be raised by missionaries, but some scholars believe they were eventually sold on the slave market. Years later, Oñate was tried in Mexico City and convicted on a dozen charges, including using excessive force against the Acoma. He was banished from New Mexico for the rest of his life and was exiled from Mexico City for five years. He lived the rest of his life in Spain.
In researching this, I realized that his soldiers probably only amputated toes rather than whole feet, because footless people make bad slaves and servants. I also understand that this massacre troubled the king of Spain, which is why he put Oñate on trial and eventually recalled him to Europe. It wasn’t a totally ignominious end, however, as “the king appointed him head of all mining inspectors in Spain.”
Despite this history, people keep wanting to erect statues of the man. It’s happened in El Paso, Texas, and it’s happened in Española, New Mexico. Naturally, this arouses protest. Someone cut the foot off one of the statues in 1997. The one in was Española was removed, and now it’s scheduled to go back up.
“We plan to keep fighting to make sure this symbol of murder, this symbol of slavery does not go up,” said Celina Montoya Garcia, a member of the nearby Native American Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo community and a coordinator for the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.
At the protest against this on Thursday, a MAGA supporting man named Ryan Martinez opened fire, shooting and wounding a bystander in the chest.
So, what are the supporters of the statue thinking?
Commission Chair Alex Naranjo, who has helped in the relocation effort says the statue is an important part of New Mexico history. “What really irks me and bothers me is we’re listening to a few radicals that are trying to change the system that we’ve lived with for 400 years. And to me that’s very personal,” said Alex Naranjo, Rio Arriba County Commission Chair. “It was there before. What am I going to do with that statue? What are we going to do with that statue?”
Naranjo says he believes a majority of his constituents are on his side.
I guess I’d just appeal to authority in this case. The man’s boss, the king of Spain, was not erecting statues to Juan de Oñate or arguing he was a good representative of Nuevo Mexico history. He had him tried, convicted and recalled. That should really have ended the debate.
And, yet, people are still getting shot over this controversy.
