I recently attended a CHART (Culture, Healing, Art, Reconciliation, and Truth) -sponsored event by the city of Santa Fe, developed to address underlying issues of inequality and injustice after the Obelisk was topped in the Plaza. The excellent lecture by urban planner Setha Low repeatedly mentioned how public spaces should always highlight their history and historic inhabitants.
I noticed there were no Pueblo or Tewa people in attendance. When we broke out into smaller groups, no one, not even CHART employees, could explain why they weren’t in attendance. The plaza we were to artistically design wasn’t to be our current downtown plaza, but rather a new plaza to be located elsewhere. The Hispanics at our table were adamant… the obelisk should be restored and the plaza left alone.
… No one disputes Santa Fe was once a Tewa Pueblo. No one disputes (that) … intermarriage, Spanish architecture, acequias and the creation of New Mexican cuisine (has created) a hybrid of both cultures. No one disputes blood of the Puebloans runs in the veins of the Spanish, and the blood of the Spanish runs in the veins of Puebloans. …Both cultures share local medicines, agriculture, cuisine and pain. What the Pueblo people have endured for hundreds of years, the Hispanics are now experiencing. …
The downtown plaza belongs to both cultures, and Indian and Spanish markets are the main tourist attraction for Santa Fe. So why doesn’t the plaza represent both cultures? Why doesn’t the plaza acknowledge the history and architecture of both? It’s absolutely illogical the plaza looks like America at the time it took over New Mexico, complete with trees, grasses and an obelisk, which are not from here. …
Hispanics of Santa Fe need to gather with their cousins, the Tewas, and design a plaza they both love, equally, with no colonist oversight or outside interference. Don’t worry, all New Mexicans will embrace a Santa Fe plaza of Tewa and Hispanic mutual design.
Hispanics and Puebloans must advance themselves educationally, and equally advance New Mexico. One of the greatest gifts to come to this state is free.
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