Las Cruces Community Radio 101.5 FM
  • Home
  • Donate
  • Listen
    • Archives
  • Schedule
    • Programs
  • Underwrite
  • Merch
  • About Us
  • Events
  • Contact Us

Walt Rubel: School board made right call on name change

7/27/2020

 
​Where do you draw the line, my friend asked as we watched a news clip of Confederate monuments being removed.

It’s a fair question, given the recent toppling of a monument dedicated to Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco. The family of Grant’s wife owned slaves, and that apparently outweighed his service in leading the Union Army to victory in the Civil War, freeing all slaves, in the minds of some.
​
​My answer was that all of us have our own line, depending greatly on what we were taught in history class, and what we have learned since then.

For me, the questions are why is the person being honored and who is doing the honoring. We honor Thomas Jefferson and George Washington for their leadership in our nation’s founding, despite the fact that they owned slaves.

With Confederate leaders, slavery is not a blemish, it’s the very reason for the honor. Monuments were erected decades after the Civil War ended in an effort to change perceptions about the war and intimidate black residents living and working next to those monuments. I believe they should all come down.

So where does that leave Juan de Oñate?

In 1598, Oñate led a Spanish expedition up the Rio Grande to the confluence of the Chama River, where he became the first colonial governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico.

Our history textbooks teach us that European explorers are responsible for all of the benefits we enjoy today. They founded new lands and developed new settlements. But of course, those lands had been founded and settled for centuries.

The people of Acoma Pueblo were living here long before Oñate’s arrival. Settling the territory meant subjugating those who already lived there.

In 1599, Oñate retaliated for an ambush that killed 13 Spaniards by destroying the Acoma Pueblo and slaughtering 800 to 1,000 of its residents. Those who survived were forced into servitude.

It has been reported that Oñate punished all Acoma men over the age of 25 by cutting off their left foot. Later research suggests it was only toes that were removed, for whatever difference that makes. He did not want to completely disable his new servants.

Oñate’s time in New Mexico was marked by greed and cruelty. He came seeking gold. Failing to discover wealth, he settled for power instead. His brutal reign finally ended when he was convicted by the Spanish government of using excessive force against the Acoma people, and forever banished from New Mexico.

Four centuries later, in the 1980s, the school board in Las Cruces decided to name its new high school after Oñate. The current board recently voted 3-1, with one abstention, to reverse that decision and rename the school.

Board member Carol Cooper, who voted for the name change, now says she regrets that decision and would like to vote again. She said the action was rushed, and went against the wishes of most community members, who oppose changing the name. And, she noted the school pride and spirit that has been built over the years.

School board member Ray Jaramillo cast the lone vote against the name change. Jaramillo said the timing was not right, given the ongoing pandemic and its impact on the budget. But he’s not defending the memory of Oñate. Nor is Cooper.

Jaramillo said it was students who led the effort ro get the name changed. I hope that means they are getting a more balanced and complete version of our history than the one I was taught in school.


Walter Rubel can be reached at [email protected]
Listen to the audio version.

Comments are closed.

    Shows

    All
    All About Books
    Cafe Con Leche
    Commentaries
    Coronavirus Update
    Delving In
    Earth Matters
    Eye On Government
    Just Community
    Live From The Market
    Live True
    Mesilla Valley Sports Show
    Speak Up Las Cruces
    Special Broadcasts
    Take On Faith
    The Sunday Show
    Think Again
    This Week In Las Cruces

    Music Shows

    You can find a two-week archive of all of our music shows and nearly every other one of our shows by going to our Schedule page.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly