{"id":1093,"date":"2017-10-10T21:49:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T01:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/?p=1093"},"modified":"2021-10-11T22:18:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T02:18:11","slug":"columbus-and-my-neighbors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/?p=1093","title":{"rendered":"Columbus and my neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an updated version of a post from 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n

Columbus Day used to be a really boring holiday (unless you\u2019re Italian). Now it\u2019s nearly as controversial as, say, a football game, as a growing number of cities dump Christopher Columbus in favor of Indigenous People. 2021 update: Looks like it’s a national holiday now.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m all for giving indigenous folks their own holiday, perhaps in March or April, and don\u2019t begrudge government workers yet another day off. But it\u2019s hard to escape the impression that re-naming the holiday is more about dissing Chris than celebrating the indigenous.<\/p>\n

Whether or not Columbus was a bad hombre personally, his principal accomplishment was to open the Western Hemisphere to Spanish colonization. So are the anti-Columbus folks saying that the continent would be a better place if the Spanish had never interfered with idyllic folk like the Mayans? If so, doesn\u2019t that disparage Hispanic Americans?<\/p>\n

For a closer look at Columbus\u2019 legacy, consider my adopted home state of New Mexico: Hispanics make up 45% of the population and Native Americans another 10%. The result is a rich, blended culture that makes Columbus impossible to erase and Native Americans impossible to dismiss.<\/p>\n

Many New Mexicans trace their families all the way back to Spain (because the priests that accompanied the Spanish invaders recorded all the baptisms and marriages). They are unlikely to agree that their ancestors should have stayed there instead of following Columbus \u2013 especially when the family tree includes the occasional Native American. Some New Mexicans have embraced the \u201cindigenous\u201d label themselves because their families were on the land before it was part of the United States.<\/p>\n

Update: I’ve been studying New Mexico history and find that the state has its own ethnic melting pot. The “Spanish” who colonized the place were a racially mixed bunch when they got here.\u00a0New Mexico was practicing diversity and inclusion a couple of centuries before it became fashionable.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

If Columbus had never arrived, my house would be a Cape Cod.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Spanish arrived in 1541 and their influence is everywhere: in architecture, religion, art, food, etc. Spanish is the state\u2019s official second language and practically every place has a Spanish name (including the street where I live).<\/p>\n

Native American influence is nearly as strong. While indigenous populations were evicted from most other states, Navajos and Apaches returned to their ancestral lands after the displacements of the Nineteenth Century and the 19 pueblos never left. So while Native Americans may be a political abstraction in New York and Washington, they\u2019re neighbors and co-workers in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Over the centuries the two cultures have co-existed and blended. Santa Fe\u2019s two biggest art events are Spanish Market and Indian Market. You can see Indian dances and flamenco in the same day in Albuquerque. Catholic churches on the pueblos have a distinctive Native American atmosphere. New Mexico\u2019s unique cuisine combines both traditions on the same plate.<\/p>\n

Reconciling Columbus\u2019 legacy is an ongoing process here. Everyone acknowledges that the Conquistador ancestors of my neighbors enslaved the Indians and converted them to Catholicism at swordpoint. For the past 300 years Santa Fe\u2019s biggest festival has celebrated the Entrada<\/a>, the 1692 \u201cbloodless reconquest\u201d of New Mexico by the Spanish after the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 kicked them out. The bloodless part was a whitewash, it turns out, and the city is re-thinking the festival.<\/p>\n

A monument<\/a> in Santa Fe erected in 1868 commemorates the soldiers who fought against the \u201csavage Indians.\u201d The word \u201csavage\u201d has been chiseled out. Update: The Santa Fe monument was torn down by rioters in the first “celebration” of Indigenous Peoples Day last year. (No great loss: It was a pretty ugly monument.) There’s an opportunity to create an exciting new monument that symbolizes unity. A committee has been formed.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago the Taos town council removed Kit Carson\u2019s name from a local park<\/a> because of the famous explorer\u2019s role in a brutal forced migration of Navajo people. They changed the name back again because Kit\u2019s buried there, but discussion is likely to continue.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a high school team called the Redskins. It\u2019s on the Navajo reservation and everybody\u2019s cool with it. An elderly state senator closes every session of the legislature by singing a Navajo song<\/a>. It’s a tradition.<\/p>\n

When the \u201cOccupy\u201d protests popped up a few years ago, the local version<\/a> called itself \u201c(Un)occupy Albuquerque\u201d to protest the 400-year occupation of Native American land.<\/p>\n

In a more sensible way to cast off colonialism, a couple of New Mexico\u2019s pueblos voted to revive their Native American names<\/a>. The Spanish had named the pueblos for the churches they forced the inhabitants to build. So San Juan Pueblo is now Ohkay Owingeh and Santo Domingo is Kewa Pueblo.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque and Santa Fe are joining the national movement to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, but Hispanic city employees still get the day off. Meanwhile, New Mexico\u2019s celebration of its blended culture will continue to evolve with updated monuments and festivals. And folks who want to atone for Columbus\u2019 sins against indigenous people can pay reparations at the nearest Native American casino.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an updated version of a post from 2017. Columbus Day used to be a really boring holiday (unless you\u2019re Italian). Now it\u2019s nearly as controversial as, say, a football game, as a growing number of cities dump Christopher … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-life-in-new-mexico"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1E7El-hD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1461,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions\/1461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamcclure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}