Man shot during demonstration over conquistador statue in New Mexico

Man shot during demonstration over conquistador statue in New Mexico

https://media-mbst-pub-ue1.s3.amazon...c-fdfce6d40257

Tim Stelloh
,NBC News•June 15, 2020
Comment

https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/EN...dd9082e30f09d4
Man shot during demonstration over conquistador statue in New Mexico More

A man was shot Monday evening at a demonstration where protesters planned to topple a conquistador statue in Albuquerque, New Mexico, authorities said.

It wasn’t immediately clear who had been shot. The Albuquerque Police Department said in a statement that one person had been taken to a hospital in critical condition, but there were no other injuries.

A video of the protest appeared to show police holding multiple people on the street near the Albuquerque Museum, where protesters were planning to remove a statue of Juan de Oñate statue, NBC affiliate KOB reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear if they were under arrest or being detained.

The station reported that they belonged to an armed “civil guard” group.

Multiple officers in tactical gear could be seen surrounding the injured person before he was taken from the scene.

Another video from the station showed several people tugging on a chain that had been lassoed around the statue while chanting “tear it down.” At the end of the video, several shots can be heard, though it isn’t clear if the sounds are gunfire.

The Albuquerque Police Department said the scene is under investigation.

https://news.yahoo.com/man-shot-duri...031700294.html

Juan de Oñate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jump to navigationJump to searchThis article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Oñate and the second or maternal family name is Salazar.

Juan de Oñate
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._New_Spain.jpgOñate Monument Center, Alcalde, NM
1st Spanish Governor of New Mexico
In office November 1598 – 18 April 1606
Succeeded by	Cristóbal de Oñate (son)
Personal details
Born	1550 Pánuco, Viceroyalty of New Spain (now Zacatecas, Mexico)
Died	"on or about June 4" 1626 (aged 76) [1] Guadalcanal, Seville, Spain
Occupation	explorer and governor of New Mexico
Signature	https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...px-Fig3-11.gif

Juan de Oñate y Salazar (Spanish: [ˈxwan de oˈɲate] (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...peaker.svg.pnglisten); 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great Plains and Lower Colorado River Valley, encountering numerous indigenous tribes in their homelands there. Oñate founded settlements in the province, now in the Southwestern United States.

Today Oñate is known for the 1599 Acoma Massacre. Following a dispute that led to the death of thirteen Spaniards at the hands of the Ácoma, including Oñate's nephew, Juan de Zaldívar, Oñate ordered a brutal retaliation against Acoma Pueblo.

The Pueblo was destroyed.^[2] Around 800–1000 Ácoma were killed.^[3]

Of the 500 or so survivors, at a trial at Ohkay Owingeh, Oñate sentenced most to twenty years of forced "personal servitude" and additionally mandated that all men over the age of twenty-five have a foot cut off.^[3] He was eventually banished from New Mexico and exiled from Mexico City for five years, convicted by the Spanish government of using "excessive force" against the Acoma people.^[2]

Today, Oñate remains a controversial figure in New Mexican history: in 1998 the right foot was cut off a statue of the conquistador that stands in Alcalde, New Mexico in protest of the massacre, and significant controversy arose when a large equestrian statue of Oñate was erected in El Paso, Texas in 2006.^[4][5]


On June 15 2020, the statue of Oñate in Alcalde, New Mexico was officially removed by Rio Arriba County workers at the direction of officials.^[6] Wikipedia

New Mexico Takes Down Statue of Its Conquistador


Man Is Shot at Protest Over Statue of New Mexico’s Conquistador


One statue of Juan de Oñate was removed, and another was the center of debate. There has long been tension between Native Americans and Hispanics over Spain’s conquest of New Mexico.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020...isable=upscale

The statue called “La Jornada” features Juan de Oñate (center) on the property of the Albuquerque Museum. The statue was vandalized after a petition for its removal began circulating.Credit...Adria Malcolm for The New York Times

By Simon Romero

• June 15, 2020

ALBUQUERQUE — Gunfire broke out during a protest Monday night in Albuquerque to demand the removal of a statue of Juan de Oñate, the despotic conquistador of New Mexico whose image has become the latest target in demonstrations across the country aimed at righting a history of racial injustice.

As dozens of people gathered around a statue of Oñate, New Mexico’s 16th-century colonial governor, shouting matches erupted over proposals to take it down and a man was shot, prompting police officers in riot gear to rush in.

The man, who was not identified, was taken away in an ambulance, and the police took into custody several members of a right-wing militia who were dressed in camouflage and carrying military-style rifles. It was not clear whether any of them had fired the shot, or whether they were merely being questioned.

The protest turned into pandemonium as protesters screamed and dove for cover and police officers attempted to secure the scene.

Witnesses said the gunman was a white man in a blue shirt.

Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said in a statement that “one male subject” had been shot and transported to the hospital, and that his condition was unknown.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020...isable=upscale

Image

Protesters gathered around a man who was shot during a demonstration in Albuquerque, N.M., on Monday.Credit...Adria Malcolm for The New York Times

“Officers are securing the scene,” he said. “Detectives will be investigating this scene. This is an active scene and updates will be provided when available.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...Snk_normal.jpgSimon Romero@viaSimonRomero


Very tense scene in Albuquerque right now. Shots fired, a guy on the ground. Militia members still w/ rifles

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_t...g&name=900x900


723
7:07 PM - Jun 15, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy

830 people are talking about this

As 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.

Earlier 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 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.

Oñate’s period as governor was marked by a violent repression considered severe even by the standards of his time. He killed 800 Indigenous people in Acoma Pueblo and ordered his men to cut off the foot of at least 24 male captives. Spanish authorities convicted him on charges of excessive violence and cruelty, permanently exiling him from New Mexico.

Maurus Chino, 66, an Acoma artist, said he welcomed the efforts to take down the statues. But Mr. Chino said that in his view, removing the monuments did not go far enough.

“Melt them down and recast them as commemorative pieces,” said Mr. 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.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020...isable=upscale

Image

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020...isable=upscale

Members of a militia group called the New Mexico Civil Guard are apprehended after a protester was shot in Albuquerque on Monday.Credit...Adria Malcolm for The New York Times

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. Since then, that act has resonated widely in New Mexico as a symbol of Indigenous resistance.

Some Hispanic leaders in New Mexico oppose removing the statues, though there is by no means consensus on the question. 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.

“It is a sculpture of a group of people on their journey into New Mexico with their livestock,” Mr. Arellanes said in a Facebook post about the statue, which was completed in 2004 and depicts Oñate leading an expedition of settlers and soldiers.

The Albuquerque Museum board of trustees voted last week to remove the sculpture, called “La Jornada,” or the journey. 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.

At 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. Some looked on derisively as members of the New Mexico Civil Guard arrived with their long guns.

“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.

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.

Officials in Rio Arriba County told the Albuquerque Journal that the statue in Alcalde was being removed “temporarily.”

The discussion about what to do with the statues is feeding a broader debate over race and identity in New Mexico. For many Hispanics, statues of Oñate and other conquistadors represent symbols of resistance to Anglo dominance in New Mexico since the 19th century.

“We’ve been living among each other for 400 years, intermarrying, making New Mexico what it is today,”

Mr. Arellanes said in a telephone interview, while emphasizing that he had Indigenous ancestry from Tewa-speaking peoples. “This is what happens when people try to drive a wedge between us.”

Others, however, said it may be time to stop honoring conquistadors. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the governor of New Mexico, said on Twitter that taking down the Oñate statue in Alcalde was “a step in the right direction” toward understanding New Mexico’s complicated history and “imbalanced power structures.”

Brian Vallo, the governor of Acoma Pueblo, said he agreed with removing the Oñate statues, drawing a connection between the atrocities carried out centuries ago during the conquest and the legacy of those events today. He pointed to the vulnerability of tribal nations in the face of Covid-19 and the heightened risk they face of dying, as an example of how Indigenous peoples are still struggling with extreme inequality.

“This is not anything new for Acoma,” said Mr. Vallo, who opted against speaking at the Albuquerque protest on Monday to remove the Oñate statue. He said he was trying to lead by example for a people that have followed strict distancing measures in an attempt to prevent infections. “It has to be understood that Acoma has been dealing with this trauma since it happened in 1599.”

The impetus for removing the statues also points to shifting definitions in New Mexico of what it means to be Hispanic or Native American. Some pushing to take the monuments down identify as Genízaros, descendants of enslaved Indians who were raised in Hispanic culture, while other proponents of the statue removals suggest there are other ways to recognize the endurance and resilience of New Mexico’s Hispanic culture.

“We are not static museum pieces and history has never stood still like these statues,” Estevan Rael-Gálvez, a former New Mexico State historian, said in another Facebook post. “The fact that Oñate and other figures of conquest have been embraced as a symbol of identity reveals a lack of critical thinking and imagination.”

New Mexico Takes Down Statue of Its Conquistador

New Mexico governor condemns vigilantes who instigated violence at demonstration

Police say they arrested former city council candidate Steven Ray Baca, 31, in connection to the shooting. He has been charged with aggravated battery.

Spanish colonial monuments fuel race strife in US Southwest

Petition circulating to remove former Mexican president’s name from San Diego statue