In 1692, Don Diego de Vargas led some 60 Spanish soldiers and more than 100 Indian allies into Santa Fe during what is heralded as a bloodless reconquest of New Mexico territory, 12 years after the Spanish were driven from the area during the Pueblo Revolt.
Along with an arsenal of seven cannons, he brought a wooden Marian figure rescued from a burning church before the Spanish fled. De Vargas prayed to her for a peaceful resettlement of the territory, yet she was called “La Conquistadora.”
And while de Vargas’ prayers were answered and the Spanish successfully reoccupied the territory without bloodshed, the peace didn’t last. In the years that followed, plenty of blood was spilled, often that of the pueblo people.
Each year during Fiesta, the Caballeros de Vargas, a nonprofit Catholic ministry dedicated to preserving Spanish history and culture, re-enacts de Vargas’ arrival in the city with the Entrada pageant on Santa Fe’s Plaza. The man portraying de Vargas lays down his armor and sheds his sword, and meets with the Indian cacique, who welcomes him.
It is meant to represent the coming together of two cultures that make up so much of what New Mexico is today and the promise de Vargas made to the Virgin Mary to honor her each year for granting his prayer. “What we celebrate is that one moment of peace we had with our native brothers and sisters,” said City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez, who played the role of de Vargas in 2000.
He noted that the Fiesta Council tries to be inclusive by reaching out to pueblo people each year. And he says Fiesta isn’t a celebration of Spanish ethnicity; it’s really about the Catholic faith. “(Only if) you’ve been intimately involved in the festivities do you really understand the connection Fiesta has with Our Lady,” he says.
“Our Lady of Peace” is the name given to La Conquistadora by Archbishop Robert Sanchez in 1992, the first archbishop to offer an apology to local Native American people for the transgressions inflicted upon them after Europeans arrived in America.
Pope Francis has also issued an apology for the wrongs the church committed against indigenous people and quotes from that speech were included as part of this year’s Fiesta, as well as a poem acknowledging misdeeds that were done.
Still, this year’s Entrada drew a passive protest from about two dozen people objecting that the event fails to tell the native side of the story. “We didn’t want to disrupt anything, we just wanted to provide an alternative voice,” said Jessica Montoya, one of the demonstration organizers.
The demonstrators wore black T-shirts bearing the date “1680,” the year of the Pueblo Revolt, and held signs carrying such messages as “Don Diego came in the dark of night” and “In 1693, Don Diego executed 70 warriors and enslaved hundreds of women and children.” Some demonstrators wore tape over their mouths.
“For many years, we have been silent,” said Montoya, who added that the re-conquest was about “the silencing of one culture.”
Montoya, who is of mixed ethnicity, works for Tewa Women United, an intertribal support group for women. She ran for La Reina, the Fiesta queen, in 2008, an experience she said brought her closer to her faith and helped her to better understand the Native perspective.
“If we’re truly humble, why aren’t we asking for forgiveness?” she asked. “We have to move forward with truth at the front. I think that’s the only way we can clean out the wound.”
