Yolanda Leyva’s protests 13 years ago against the erection of a statue of Juan de Oñate, a Spanish conquistador, cost him relationships and contributed to increasing division in his community. And in the end, it all seemed in vain: after months of meeting with others, he learned that the statue would be installed in front of the El Paso International Airport in Texas anyway.
“We were a coalition of Native Americans and Mexican Americans protesting the statue because we believed it represented cruelty, brutality, and the horrors of colonization,” said Leyva, an activist who is an associate professor of history at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Oñate, a divisive historical figure known for solving what is now known as the southwestern region of the U.S., ordered the destruction of the Native American Acoma Pueblo in 1599 in what is known as the Acoma Massacre. He ordered the amputation of the feet of Acoma’s men and then his hands as punishment for having fought against the Spanish; He was later convicted of using excessive force and banished from New Mexico.
“But some other Mexican Americans said that the statue represented Mexican history, not Spanish history, since Oñate was born in Mexico, and that we should not protest because it was time for ‘our history’ to be represented in El Paso,” Leyva said.
The decades-long debate over the Oñate statue connects to current widespread protests demanding racial justice and the removal of statues of Confederate leaders. It has led many to wonder: What should be done with the statues in honor of the Spanish conquistadors and missionaries, and what do these statues represent for Latinos, whose ancestry includes this Spanish legacy?
After the Oñate statue was erected in 2007 and renamed The Equestrian to make it less controversial, it inevitably fell from the consciousness of the general public, Leyva said. That is, until last month, when the 36-foot monument, supposedly the largest equestrian statue in the world, was smashed with spray paint. The phrases and obscenities written on the statue include “Your god is not my god.”
“I don’t even know how people were able to tear it apart, as the statue is in a very prominent place, but part of me is glad that people remembered the statue and what I think it means,” Leyva said. “People argue that if you knock down the statues, you are erasing history, but the statues do not teach history. People simply say, ‘Oh look, there is a man on a horse.'”
For Leyva, vandalism means a greater recognition that Latinos can have about the relics of the Spanish colonial past, and a reminder of the violence inflicted on the natives.
Not everyone agrees, including Daniel Ortiz, whose petition titled “Stop Attacking Our Hispanic Heritage!” He had pulled out almost 3,000 signatures this week. Ortiz argued that the Spanish helped New Mexico’s native communities by “allowing mixed marriages that led to a shared culture” and that the Spanish “made peace with Native American peoples a long time ago,” making the statues that the commemorated should not be removed.
“It would have no problem if the Native American tribes found the statues offensive, but the effort to remove the statues is led by Anglos and a small radical group of Native Americans, not by the peoples,” said Ortiz, whose family has lived in the state for at least 14 generations. “They are kidnapping and taking advantage of the Black Lives Matter movement to sow discord and erase the history of Hispanics.”
“Latinx people are the protagonists of historical justice and the offspring of colonization,” says historian John Nieto-Phillips.
The Spanish embassy in Washington also denounced the destruction of such statues and wrote that it plans to continue defending the Spanish legacy “by intensifying” its educational efforts “so that the reality of our shared history is better known and understood.”
Other colonial monuments have recently been attacked. In Los Angeles and San Francisco, protesters demolished the statues of Junípero Serra, a Spanish priest and founder of the California mission system during the Spanish colonization of the area in the 18th century. Serra has been accused of violence against indigenous people by forcing them to convert to Catholicism.
“Black Lives Matter has become a national movement to seek justice and equality for all blacks and indigenous people,” reads a petition calling for the removal of a Serra statue in Ventura, California, which had been signed by some 8,000. people this week. “The City of Ventura and the Ventura Unified School District must take steps and do their part to dismantle systemic racism in all its forms.”
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, officials decided to preemptively tear down a statue of Oñate after an altercation in Albuquerque attended by members of a right-wing militia, during which a protester was shot. Local officials are also considering renaming schools, parks, and other public spaces that concern Spanish explorers across the country, particularly in the southwest.
Latinos as ‘oppressed’ – and oppressors
While the tension over Spanish colonial monuments was precipitated and is gaining momentum in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, experts said the actions are part of a particular local context, which is further complicated by the “rigid” categorizations of ethnicity
“Some Latinos claim indigenous identity, so the rigid and unnatural categories of race and identity we have been able to make the situation more nuanced and prevent Latinos from seeing their relational history,” said Dulcinea Lara, associate professor at criminal justice at New Mexico State University. “A lot of education is being done and more needs to be done, which implies teaching about internalized colonization: how people have been forced to speak Spanish instead of indigenous languages, convert to Catholicism and abandon indigenous religious practices and assimilate into a certain way of life. “
For Hispanics in New Mexico, Lara said, recognizing themselves “as oppressed and participating in an oppressive system is an important and difficult journey.” She cites the United States making New Mexico a territory in 1848 as an example of how Hispanics could benefit from their European ancestry, while natives were denied US citizenship.
Hispanics in New Mexico also embraced white versus mixed identity to avoid further discrimination at the hands of white people who moved to the territory in the 19th century, said John Nieto-Phillips, author of “The Language of Blood: The Making of Spanish- American Identity in New Mexico, 1880-1930 “. By aligning themselves with whiteness, some Hispanics advocated that “pure” Spanish blood be perpetuated by fueling a eugenic movement, treating those with mixed backgrounds as “mestizos who could not govern themselves,” said Nieto-Phillips, associate professor of history at Indiana University.
“Whiteness figured prominently in Hispanic creation, at least in the New Mexico context,” said Nieto-Phillips. “If we really want to be in alliance with indigenous communities, I think we must recognize our complicity in the roles that we have historically played, that our ancestors have played, and understand that Latinx people are the protagonists in historical justice and progeny of colonization. “
A starting point’
Gabriel Sánchez, professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, said he believes it is too early to evaluate the results of efforts to overthrow statues and rename buildings that represent Spanish colonialism. However, recent events point to a settling of scores among Latinos with Hispanic descent, particularly among younger ones, about talking more openly about race and racism.
Sánchez referred to a recent Latino Decisions survey that showed that more than 80 percent of nearly 500 Latino parents said they used George Floyd’s death as an entry point to discuss race relations with their children.
In places like New Mexico, “we are talking about several generations of Hispanic and Native American populations living together,” Sanchez said.
“While there has been shared reverence and solidarity on the issues, particularly on police brutality, there has also been underlying tension,” he said. “I think this is an opportunity to address some of that, but it’s really the starting point for a long-term discussion.”
Lara said she has also seen a greater shift in urgency among Latinos with Spanish ancestry. She said she is finding it more common for people to come forward apologizing for their ancestors’ actions as a “statement of public reparation.”
Lara noted that in 2018, for example, Santa Fe canceled its Entry tradition, the recreation of the Spanish occupation of Santa Fe in 1692 by Diego de Vargas, after protesters argued that it glorified violence against indigenous peoples.
Michelle Otero, Albuquerque’s award-winning poet, was part of a group of artists who came together to write a proclamation marking the update at the festival. Otero will hold a series of conversations in the city about Spanish and Latin identity and the monuments that represent the Spanish colonial past.
“There is a tricultural myth of indigenous, Hispanic, and Latino peoples and white people living in harmony, and I only learned later in life how white supremacy manifests itself in my world and in this place where I am from.” said Otero, whose family has lived in the state for several generations. “Thank God I had very patient people around me who challenged me in the best way to expand my thinking.”
Lara added that in the end, the statues should not divert attention from the general fight for racial and ethnic justice.
“There is a lot of crying in my classes, with students saying: ‘Here I am in this body, talking about the discrimination that my family and I have experienced, but at the same time, historically my ancestry has been involved in the oppression of indigenous people. people, “said Lara. “We have to have these conversations in a compassionate way, because it’s not so much about the statues. It’s about challenging the systems of oppression and their symbols.”
Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
