indigenous

The issue there were protesting is interesting, too. There was a protest in Albuquerque about basically the same issue which 'turned violent' also... guess by what sort of people. The issue is a statue of Juan de Oñate, who was basically a violent primitive scumbag who subjugated this area for Spain and ordered the massacre and mutilation of hundreds or thousands of Pueblo people. So, someone decided it would be great to put a statue of this guy directly in San Juan Pueblo (now once again known as Ohkay Owingeh). A few years back, someone cut off the statues right foot, symbolizing the very wise (aka revolting and incredibly abusive) punishment he meted out to hundreds of Pueblo people as punishment for the revolt of 1680.

So, the government figured out maybe they shouldn't have this statue up, and took it down in mid 2020. Now someone decided "oh hey, let's put it up in Española", Española being the small town south of Ohkay Owingeh, just north of Santa Fe, NM. So, people are protesting that, since Oñate was some violent scumbag and not really someone who needs to be honored or remembered. Of course, the predictable people say "this is MY heritage!" as if they actually care about colonial Spain.