If the image of angry Spanish youth throwing the fascist salute worries you, you might want to pay close attention. Because while the photo above was taken in Madrid during an event in honor of Fransisco Franco, a homegrown brand of hispano white nationalism is taking shape right here in the state of New Mexico.
The controversy surrounding Española’s celebration of Juan de Oñate recently boiled over when a coalition of community activists and Indigenous rights groups demanded that representations of Oñate be removed from the city’s annual parade. This demand prompted an outcry from a small, but vocal segment of New Mexico’s white hispano community, who saw it as an existential threat to their cherished fiestas.
The thing is, very few people have a problem with commemorating the events that led to the establishment of communities in northern New Mexico. The history is well documented of how these communities were settled by a handful of Spaniards accompanied by a large number of Indios Mexicanos. It is the insistence that these fiestas serve as a platform for celebrating Juan de Oñate that people take issue with. Hell, the majority of people who live in Española don’t seem to have a problem with working out some sort of compromise.
So…why would anyone be opposed to celebrating Juan de Oñate, you might ask?
For starters, he was a career criminal who was tried and convicted of rape, murder, and theft – crimes for which he was exiled from the state of New Mexico for life. In fact, Oñate was such a shytty leader that 2/3 of the Spanish colonists he led to New Mexico deserted his settlement and fled. Perhaps most importantly, he is best known for having ordered the enslavement of Acoma women and children, and ordering that all Acoma men over the age of 25 have one of their feet chopped off.
Seriously. This is the murderous clown that a small group of New Mexican hispanos is rushing to defend.
The hispanos view their veneration of Juan de Oñate as a matter of European birthright, and perceive any criticism of Oñate and the parade held in his honor as an assault on their culture. And therein lies the problem: by framing Oñate as the embodiment of their culture, Oñate supporters have painted themselves into an ideological corner, creating an intractable situation in which even the slightest compromise would be seen as complete cultural surrender. In their minds, admitting that Oñate was a piece of shyt is tantamount to admitting that their culture is also shyt.
This fear of somehow betraying their heritage prevents them from ever doing the right thing in this situation, which would be to commemorate history without glorifying a murdering rapist. But perhaps creating such an immovable position was the plan all along. After all, it is far easier to mobilize your base against an imagined threat to your culture and community than it is to do credible research and admit that celebrating Oñate is a pretty fukking horrible idea. Unfortunately, people tend to have a hard time admitting when they are wrong.
Unsurprisingly, their position bears a striking resemblance to that of southerners who promote confederate imagery as “heritage” rather than symbols of white supremacy. If this seems like an unfair comparison, I joined the “Save the Española Fiestas” Facebook page to develop a more informed opinion of their views. Here is a response I received to one of my questions:
Puke.
Things recently came to a head at an Española City Council meeting, where supporters of the fiestas petitioned to have the sponsorship of the event transferred to a non-profit to avoid city oversight of the parade. Their arguments for honoring Oñate were…interesting to say the least.
Many of the Oñate proponents in attendance made sure to reference the “common blood and culture” they share with New Mexico’s indigenous people, but this was little more than cover to excuse their abhorrent support of Oñate. After all, if they actually DID have any respect for this “common blood and culture,” they would take the concerns of Indigenous people into consideration. I mean, surely we can commemorate our shared history in a way that is dignified, inclusive, and respectful, right?
Apparently not.
The most telling moment of the evening came when a pro-Oñate historian (and I use the term “historian” loosely), argued that the Spanish colonization of New Mexico was inevitable, and that white hispanos should be seen as native to the area. Because, you know, all it takes to be native is to be born somewhere. This ahistorical argument is designed to gradually obfuscate who is and isn’t a “native” person, thus enabling white hispanos to lay some sort of ancestral claim to New Mexico. It is an intellectually dishonest tactic, demonstrating a clear disregard for New Mexico’s numerous indigenous communities.
What this reveals about the Oñate supporters is that they really aren’t concerned with “preserving culture” at all. Rather, they have embraced a pointedly ethnocentric position that seeks to privilege the legacy of European conquest by any means necessary. Framing European colonization as an inevitable form of “manifest destiny” and declaring that their descendants are now “natives” is a hallmark of settler colonialism. Australian writer and historian Patrick Wolfe calls this strategy “destroy to replace.”
Whatever settlers may say— and they generally have a lot to say—the primary motive for elimination is not race (or religion, ethnicity, grade of civilization, etc.) but access to territory. Territoriality is settler colonialism’s specific, irreducible element.
– Patrick Wolfe
The underlying intent of the pro-Oñate fiestas is not to preserve any sort of cultural traditions, but to distort New Mexico’s history to the point that its Indigenous people are merely footnotes in a pre-ordained historical legacy written by and for white people. Glorifying men like Juan de Oñate is a central part of this process.
In a recent Facebook comment, an Oñate supporter asked “What do we call this group of awesome culture protectors now?” Whatever name they choose to go by, I think “hispano white nationalist” best describes their attitudes and objectives. In fact, this is the term I will be using from here on.
Sound like hyperbole? Consider a few other comments made by members of their group:
United States
Originally Posted by CYKA
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