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Sunday, July 27, 2008
Oñate Documentary Conquers New Mexico Reality
By Dan Herrera, Assistant Managing Editor
As the credits rolled for "The Last Conquistador," my reaction was that the documentary was not much more than small groups of people trying to yell the loudest.
Later, I also wondered why one would choose to foment tension between peoples who learned through conflict to get along and have lived together mostly amicably for more than 300 years.
This film is scheduled to be shown at 8 p.m. Thursday on KNME, Albuquerque's PBS affiliate. I saw it on DVD and would not recommend it.
"Conquistador" is billed as documenting the conflict that erupted when Santa Fe sculptor John Houser was about to finish for the city of El Paso his monumental sculpture of Juan de Oñate, who in 1598 was the founding governor of New Mexico under Spanish rule.
It does show the beating down of an old, gifted artist whose biggest sin seems to be a lack of awareness of the political correctness movement. He was the most thoughtful person in the film.
But the film goes beyond today's conflict over art and its place in the public sphere to villainize the people who settled New Mexico. No wonder it has not been shown here, although it apparently has been broadcast in other places.
New Mexico's history is complex, thankfully in part because the newcomers did not exterminate or relocate the indigenous people as happened in most of the rest of the United States.
But it did take a good 100 years and a revolution for native and newcomer to learn to coexist and work toward a common good. The fact that the Americans were not able to destroy New Mexico's Indian and Hispano cultures when they came along a mere 160 years ago is testament to the two groups' mutual support. But you wouldn't know that from this documentary.
New Mexico is not a place that shies away from disputes about art. Remember the fury over Guadalupe in a bikini a few years ago?
And we had our own Oñate statue disputes when celebrating New Mexico's 400th and Albuquerque's 300th birthdays.
Compromises were made in Albuquerque, and a monument was created that represents all involved — even the sheep and pigs. Santa Fe quietly erected an Oñate statue during that period. Another one has been up near Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo for years; you might remember protesters cut off its foot at one time.
There was a dust-up about the placement of Po'pay as one of New Mexico's two figures in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. Po'pay was a Pueblo leader in 1680 who, like Oñate, ordered destruction and the death of innocents. Many criticisms in the film about Oñate could also be said about Po'pay.
But this is not a documentary about art. It is an indictment of New Mexico.
New Mexico is presented as a place where Indian and Hispano are at each other's throats. Where common people still feud over injuries 400 years old. Where feelings are so harsh that we take them to the streets in other states.
This might represent a few people, but it's not New Mexico.
The film recognizes that today's Pueblo Indians are descendants of those who were conquered but doesn't adequately address the fact that a large number of New Mexico Hispanos are descendants of the settlers who came with Oñate. And, frankly, most from both groups likely share DNA. People have always met and married neighboring villagers and had children.
Much is made of the fact that the sculpture was paid for with public money and donations from rich people. So was this documentary.
I'm actually surprised that the National Endowment for the Arts and their cohort would appear to support an argument against the very idea of a work of art. If this documentary were about the Guadalupe bikini controversy, they certainly would not have taken the side of those offended by the artist's vision.
Toward the end of the film, Houser displays a model of another even bigger sculpture he would like to do. It's of an El Paso-area Indian. You get the feeling that Houser hopes this will satisfy his opponents. It won't. That's not the nature of political correctness.
Houser's bronze Oñate is reportedly the largest equestrian sculpture in the world at more than 40 feet tall, including its base. You'll find it outside the El Paso airport terminal.
I am a fan of monumental sculpture, and this one is awe-inspiring. But if we must tear down representations of historical leaders who are not lily-white, then let's include Mount Rushmore, statues of the caesars, the pyramid of Khufu, and on and on and on.
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