![]() One of the men was Brian Hardgroove, a bass player for the hip-hop group Public Enemy. 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. “These guys should worry more about diabetes than the statue coming down,” Kurly Tlapoyawa, an archaeologist who had come to urge the removal of statue, said as he pointed to a militia member who was grasping a Burger King bag along with his rifle.Īt one point during the protest, Oñate’s foot even made a surprise appearance. Some looked on derisively as members of the New Mexico Civil Guard arrived with their long guns. The city’s cultural services department said over the weekend that it would convene a group of artists and community leaders to discuss the issue.Īt Monday night’s protest, demonstrators engaged in shouting matches over whether to keep the statue or take it down, with the majority demanding its removal. The Albuquerque Museum board of trustees voted last week to remove the sculpture, called “La Jornada,” or the journey. Arellanes said in a Facebook post about the statue, which was completed in 2004 and depicts Oñate leading an expedition of settlers and soldiers. “It is a sculpture of a group of people on their journey into New Mexico with their livestock,” Mr. Ralph Arellanes Sr., the president of the Hispano Round Table of New Mexico, said that taking down the Oñate statue in Albuquerque would be wrong. Some Hispanic leaders in New Mexico oppose removing the statues, though there is by no means consensus on the question. Since then, that act has resonated widely in New Mexico as a symbol of Indigenous resistance. The statue in Alcalde that was removed on Monday gained notoriety decades ago when the right foot of the statue was cut off in a secretive act of protest. Chino, adding that doing so could help draw attention to crucial junctures in New Mexico history, such as the 1680 uprising that figured among the most successful Indigenous rebellions against the Spanish empire anywhere in the Americas. “Melt them down and recast them as commemorative pieces,” said Mr. Spanish authorities convicted him on charges of excessive violence and cruelty, permanently exiling him from New Mexico. He killed 800 Indigenous people in Acoma Pueblo and ordered his men to cut off the foot of at least 24 male captives. Oñate’s period as governor was marked by a violent repression considered severe even by the standards of his time. ![]() The agitation against honoring Oñate reflects a tension that has long festered between Native Americans and Hispanics over Spain’s conquest more than four centuries ago, with protests this year over police violence unleashing a broader questioning of race relations in this part of the West. ![]() Police officers were not seen during the early portions of Monday night’s protest over the statue, which marked a new phase in the debate over racial inequities that began with the death of an African-American man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis last month.Īs protesters across the country have targeted a variety of symbols of racial injustice, including statues of Christopher Columbus, the protests in New Mexico are evolving to target symbols of colonial atrocities.Įarlier in the day, authorities in the northern town of Alcalde removed a different statue of Oñate, whose brutal rule as provincial governor put into motion centuries of Spanish rule in the region. The protest turned into pandemonium after the shooting, as protesters screamed and dove for cover and police officers attempted to secure the scene. “If this is true will be holding them accountable to the fullest extent of the law, including federal hate group designation and prosecution.” “We are receiving reports about vigilante groups possibly instigating this violence,” Chief Michael Geier of the Albuquerque Police Department said on Twitter Monday night. 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. 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.” 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. ![]()
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