FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SANTA FE—In response to Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber’s Wednesday announcement to rip down historic Spanish landmarks in the city for supposed safe-keeping, the Piñon Post launched a petition calling for the Mayor to cease the removal of historic Hispanic history.
The petition reads:
“Dear Santa Fe Mayor Alan Weber and Santa Fe City Council,
Recent actions by your administration to take down rich cultural images across Santa Fe, including the statue of Diego de Vargas Zapata y Luján Ponce de León y Contreras in Cathedral Park, the obelisk in the heart of Santa Fe’s downtown plaza, and other artifacts symbolizing our sacred Spanish heritage is not helping mend wounds — it’s erasing our Hispanic history and heritage.
The very meaning of Santa Fe is ‘City of Holy Faith,’ and our Spanish culture is heavily engrained in everything we stand for as a people, from our Fiesta traditions to our cultural landmarks that define us. For centuries, Spanish and Native American people have coexisted in our community, and together, we have lifted it up to what it is today.
However, your administration’s actions to cave into the cancel culture of radical and frankly, racist anti-Hispanic groups like ‘The Red Nation’ hurts the fabric of our culture and everything we stand for as a united people. We can exist alongside other cultures without tearing down our past.
We, the undersigned, demand you to stop the senseless destruction of our heritage by ripping down our sacred landmarks and return our statues to their rightful places — including Don Diego De Vargas in Cathedral Park.
Only together can we unite as a culture, and we do not need to tear down each others’ history to do it.”
Piñon Post editor John Block said, “Mayor Webber’s blatant disregard for our sacred Spanish culture is both an affront to the faithful people of Santa Fe and to people all across New Mexico. There is absolutely no excuse for siding with the most divisive, hateful fringe groups like ‘The Red Nation,’ in tearing down Spanish monuments and degrading our cherished Hispanic culture.”
“For centuries, our people have coexisted with other cultures and religions. Yet, you don’t see us calling for the removal of Indigenous or any other group’s history. I, like so many other Spanish people in our state, am proud of my Hispanic ancestry, heritage, and culture. Once they finish ripping down all of our statues, what will they go after next? Will they burn down the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and La Conquistadora, or torch the Palace of the Governors? No concession we could possibly make to these hate groups will placate their demands until we completely fade into extinction,” Block continued.
