Dear Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber and Santa Fe City Council,
Recent actions by your administration to take down rich cultural images across Santa Fe, including the statue of Don 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 ingrained 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 other’s history to do it.
Sincerely,
Please give the Santa Fe City Councilors and the Mayor a call to voice your opinion. Their numbers can be found here: https://www.santafenm.gov/elected_officials