News

On Monday, the Albuquerque Journal released results of a poll it did through local pollster Brian Sanderoff’s firm, Research & Polling Inc., asking whether New Mexicans agreed or disagreed with the removal of Don Juan de Oñate statues. 

“While 53% of those queried said they oppose renaming public buildings or removing statues of Oñate, 27% said they support doing so. The remaining 20% were evenly split between “mixed feelings/depends” and “undecided/didn’t know/wouldn’t say,” reports the Journal.

All categories polled, based on gender, age, and political party, age, and education level all had a majority opposing the measure to tear down Oñate monuments.

“Among Hispanics, 28% supported removing statues while 54% opposed it. Anglos expressed similar opposition: 24% supported their removal and 53% opposed it. Sanderoff said Native Americans were polled, but because they make up such a small percentage of likely voters – 4% – the group was too small to report on statistically,”  the Journal explained.

The Journal interviewed far-left “The Red Nation” chair Elena Ortiz, who tried to brush off the results, which her group, closely tied to domestic terrorism, disagreed with. “Human beings, human societies evolve and begin to change and really strive to make communities safe welcoming inclusive places. … We’re not trying to erase history; we’re trying to contextualize it, and we’re trying to reframe the narrative,” she said. 

The poll comes in the wake of Oñate statues being ripped down across the state, from one longtime standing statue in Alcalde to the La Jornada sculpture garden on the Albuquerque Museum grounds. Violent “The Red Nation” agitators have weaponized the issue to attempt to take down historical landmarks and even defaced statues. Some of the targets include the obelisk sitting in the heart of downtown Santa Fe, a bronze statue of Don Diego de Vargas in Santa Fe’s Cathedral Park, a statue of Catholic Priest Fray Angélico Chávez, and other such statues. 

In July, The Red Nation hate group held an anti-Semitic, Hezbollah-tied rally in Albuquerque, where they held vulgar signs and hated on the people of Israel, screaming at onlookers “F**k you” while they held Palestinian flags. 

The Red Nation hate group wrote in a racist, now-deleted blog post, “the ‘Hispanic’ or ‘Spanish American’ racial identity was a fiction created to make New Mexico appear ‘white enough’ to join the U.S. since both identities privileged a European or Spanish heritage even if the population was mixed or descended from detribalized peoples. New Mexico’s statehood was delayed until 1912 because white Anglos felt the territory did not possess a white majority, so a new ‘race’ of whites had to be created.”

It is clear why the majority of New Mexicans do not support canceling Spanish history and culture, and that is because the opposition to erasing the rich Hispanic culture in New Mexico is closely tied to bigotry and erasing Spanish heritage. 

Sign the petition to bring the Don Juan de Oñate statue back to its rightful place in Alcalde.