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A ceremony re-dedicating an Oñate statue in Española has apparently been postponed
Workers with Rio Arriba County remove the sculpture of Juan de Oñate in June, 2020. A ceremony re-dedicating the statue on Thursday, over three years later, has apparently been postponed.
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A ceremony scheduled for Thursday re-dedicating a controversial statue of conquistador Juan de Oñate, seen by many as a killer and enslaver of Pueblo peoples, apparently was postponed, according to a Wednesday evening post to the Rio Arriba County Facebook page.
The ceremony, which would have re-erected the statue just outside the county headquarters, has been postponed until further notice “due to unforeseen circumstances and in the interest of public safety,” according to the post.
The Rio Arriba County manager’s office did not return calls for comment made late Wednesday evening.
The Oñate statue was taken down in 2020, as communities around the country grappled with tearing down racist or otherwise controversial monuments and statues, to include the Soldiers' Monument Obelisk in the Santa Fe Plaza.
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Then-County Manager Tomas Campos said at the time he had the statue removed over threats from protesters to tear it down. The statue was then put into storage.
Some at the time saw Oñate in a heroic light for colonizing New Mexico, and rallied around the statue. But many others, like activist coalition The Red Nation, continue to protest the statue, and describe it as a monument “celebrating violent colonialism.”
In 1997, someone cut the left foot off the statue, an act that harkened back to Oñate, following a revolt, having one foot of Acoma Pueblo men 25 or older cut off and sentencing them to two decades of “personal servitude,” according to the Office of the State Historian’s website.
