Entrada organizer charged with felony & more thoughts on Friday’s protest. Then a video in which Rev. Barber outlines how the Right has used religion and false information to convince poor whites that they are poor because of the advances of people of color. Video highlights how one white racist was changed by Barber’s message.
Community Conversations Canvassing. Sunday, Sept 10, 4pm 1420 Cerrillos. Join us for a short 20 minute training and then you can go on your own schedule to meet neighbors going door-to-door. The script is very informal and conversational, the point is not to convince or dispute. You are merely engaging and chatting and by doing so, you are identifying people who want to be kept informed or getting active. From all reports, it is both fun and your neighbors will welcome the connection. No RSVP, just please show up and bring a friend.
Retake Our Democracy. Roundhouse Advocacy Team. Thursday, September 14, 6pm-8pm. 1420 Cerrillos. With ongoing input from progressive lobbyists, the team is making rapid progress in developing a statewide legislative priorities, developing 1/2 page briefs on each bill, identifying districts and communities with elected officials who stall passage of progressive legislation. Next we will be reaching out to form alliances with progressives in those districts. Join us. If you can’t make meetings, there is supportive research to be done from home. Get involved with this impactful group.Click here to RSVP or simply reply to this post.
Retake Our Democracy Town Hall. Saturday, Sept 16 , 1:30-3:30pm, 1420 Cerrillos. ICE-DACA Repeal, Clkmate Change, White Supremacy–the Three-Headed Threat to Justice & Our Planet. Join Allegra Love, SF Dreamers; Mariel Nanasi, New Energy Economy; Tomás Rivera, Chainbreaker Collective; and Scott Davis, Show Up for Racial Justice in an interactive and forward thinking conversation and planning meeting. What is the status of each of the panelists’ organizations efforts to fight this three-headed monster. How are the issues connected? What can we do here in Santa Fe. After hearing from the panelists, we will break into groups with participants being able to talk about options for local action We are making a change in the Town Hall time to allow for participants to attend Sue Duncan’s memorial at 4pm. October’s Town Hall will return to the 3-5pm time frame.Find out how you can dig in to fight for climate justice and racial justice and to protect our Dreamers. Click here to RSVP on Facebook (preferred) or just reply to this post.
More on Friday’s Protest & the Aftermath
Yesterday I did my best to capture what occurred at Friday’s Entrada protest. I also followed comments from perspectives expressed on various Facebook posts and continued to communicate with the Mayor most of the day on the status of those who had been arrested. An update:
The Mayor texted Saturday afternoon that Jennifer Marley, one of the organizers of the protest and the person arrested at Lincoln and Marcy, has been charged with two counts of battery on a police officer, felonies. Police claim that Jennifer struck two officers with a sign as she tried to walk past them, but the New Mexican claims that “officers yanked Marley from the throng as several other protesters attempted to hold on to her or pull her back into their ranks.” Both Roxanne and I saw this arrest and while neither of us saw anything like assault, we also didn’t see every minute of the confrontation or every minute of what transpired after she was handcuffed. But assault is not easy to conduct while handcuffed. If you were at the protest and witnessed the arrest up close, please respond to this post. I am sure witnesses will be needed. If you would like to contribute to Jennifer’s legal defense fund, click here.
Seven of the eight people arrested Friday were confirmed to have been released by Saturday afternoon, leaving only Jennifer Marley in custody.
The Mayor has indicated he would like to convene stakeholders, including youth, to discuss how to create a ceremony that is not divisive and celebrates both cultures and histories. All parties involved have called for such talks in the past without results, so it is important to track this process and ensure appropriate representation of stakeholders and sustained efforts that lead to an outcome respected by Indigenous and Hispanic peoples. The Mayor also stated that he did not want to see protesters prosecuted. We hope that this applies to Jennifer Marley who remains in jail today.
There was much back and forth on FB about whether the demonstration was peaceful. I suppose this depends on how you define peaceful. There was a virtual non-stop barrage of angry slogans: “Ban the Entrada,” “Shame,” and other phrases charging genocide and brutality. There were also many slogans beginning with “F- – k.” Frankly, I think the latter undermines the cause as it is certainly not going to convince anyone and merely offends, but then I have not been subjected to hundreds of years of colonization and then asked to be polite when the public square is used to enact a revisionist version of the conquest of the Pueblo people. While in a protest that went on for several hours, I couldn’t witness every moment myself, but I didn’t see anything like a violent action, a threat of physical violence, or anything like that. So while it was often an angry protest, it was never violent, and claims that ‘children would not have been safe there,’ are overstated.
The gap between perspectives on the Entrada is enormous:
- Hispanics came to the Plaza to participate in a ceremony that many have participated in since they were born, a ceremony that from their perspective celebrates a moment in time when there was peace between the Pueblo and Spanish people. How could anyone object to that?
- Natives and others protesting the Entrada see it as glossing over history entirely and in so doing, the Entrada presents a false narrative of history. How could anyone not see that and the anger that would result?
I was going close by writing something about how our City might resolve this conflict so that we don’t see an ongoing escalation of anger and pain. But really, for an Anglo with six years in this town to even begin to presume he understands would be the height of hubris. So I’ll close by saying that the last two days have been very sad and that the only way this will be resolved is if both sides spend more time reflecting on the other side’s perspective and in the end develop a narrative that reflects the history of this land and its peoples honestly and with compassion. On to the Reverend.
The Reverend Barber Once Again Strikes at the Heart of the Rural White-Black Divide
If you have conservative friends, this is one to share. It is so compelling and so clear how the Right has divided the white poor, the rural poor, and communities of color and other under-represented populations.
Categories: Actions, Social & Racial Justice & Immigration Reform
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It would be great if santa fe could create something new here. One person to bring in is John Kessell, prof emeritus at UNM. Recent book PUEBLOS, SPANIARDS, AND THE KINGDOM OF NEW MEXICO is an attempt at a very nuanced picture, including of the time and events around the Entrada. I’d bet both sides are lacking in some factual areas.
But lived experience is more than facts. If there are any theater artists out there…in years past when I lived in massachusetts, there was a play about an Indian “massacre” in Deerfield… the play was set onsite in Old Deerfield village, and the actors as well as audience moved around with each scene. BUT, the audience had to choose from which vantage point to watch. There were alternating scenes for settlers and indians. The idea was to see it twice, once from each experience. A very powerful idea.
Ginny dwyer
Thanks for the play-by-play Paul, it’s very interesting to see this played out. We seem to be entering an era where the oppressed are attempting to become the oppressors with violence and shutting people down…can’t imagine any good outcome here, as these are (supposedly) not the values the protesters actually want. Civil disobedience was always pretty effective. Why not 100 people gather at the stage in the early morning, sit on the stage and chain themselves to the stage and each other… “Occupy the Entrada”; disruption.
The issue is not what happened in the past, it is what we are still doing today. The entrada ceremony openly mocks the natives and really all people with the conquest of these lands. We all suffer the inheritance of a non-listening, stealing and lying culture until we can honestly see and make reconciliations. And we continue to suffer our inheritance at home and around the world.
If people can believe that it was a peaceful re-occupation then you can believe anything, like how we were all taught Columbus was a hero and someone to admire, same Spanish conquesting and Empire. If the Spaniard were welcomed here then why were they driven out in the first place? Anyone’s intuition can see through it. This should not diminish celebrating the Spanish heritage at all, they can be proud of their heritage without being proud of certain aspects of past events. There is a lot more to be proud of in the Spanish heritage and traditions than gruesome conquests. The Entrada re-inactment needs to go, no reason the rest of the fiesta can’t go on, as a Santa Fe city celebration of what Santa Fe is TODAY. Peace-
What Next, We currently live in a time of cry baby’s..My Family Roots are Spanish and can be traced back to Don DIEGO AND PROUD.. These Indians called my ancestors cowards BUT that’s ok ..call an Indian coward, OR SO SORRY Indian isn’t politically correct “native american” ..indians Hate pick and choose, BUT THEY SURE MAKE A LOT OF MONEY FROM FIESTAS SELLING GREASY DOUGH….MAKING $$ VS CONVICTIONS
First, I want to thank you for having the courage to speak up. This is quite obviously a very progressive blog and we are pretty unified in wanting to see the Entrada abolished or entirely rescripted. So it took guts to speak up. Thank you. We need to hear from and respect both sides.
You indicate that you are proud of your heritage. And, indeed, there is much to be proud of in that Spanish heritage. But I’d ask you to take a moment to try to understand what you describe as “Indian hate.” If you were Native and the ancestry you were so proud of had been colonized and your land had been taken, how angry would you be? How would it feel to you, if your conquerors used the public square, a square built on their land, celebrated that conquest as if there was any part of it that was truly peaceful, how would you feel?
I think you’d be quite angry. I think there is much that we could celebrate about your Spanish ancestry and Native history if we found a way to tell the story honestly. The Natives do not hate Hispanics, the blood of Hispanics and Natives are too intermingled. But they do hate the Entrada, the ceremony that denies and insults their history. There could be ceremonies that told that history more completely and more honestly and could lead to great reconciliation and shared pride.
So many cultures who have histories of conflict—in India and Pakistan, in Africa, in Bosnia and throughout the Middle East—continue to shed each others’ blood ruthlessly because they have not overcome historic hatreds. That does not happen in NM. That is something to celebrate. We now live in peace. But to live with true mutual respect and understanding, we need to be honest about the history that got us here.
What do you think? Would that not be a good a thing? A possible thing?
Paul