2020.06.18 Don Diego de Vargas, Santa Fe, New Mexico USA
On June 18, 2020 Mayor Alan Webber of Santa Fe ordered the removal of a statue of Don Diego de Vargas from Cathedral Park downtown. This decision and action came as a response to calls for its removal from indigenous activists, and as a way to ensure public safety after a man was shot in Albuquerque, NM during a demonstration at a Juan de Oñate monument. Many members of the Santa Fe City Council, however, were not in favor of the removal, arguing that because a formal discussion about the fate of the monument never occurred, they were robbed of a fair “democratic process.” In September 2020, three months following the removal, a group of people held a vigil honoring the conquistador and gathered around the missing monument to mourn the removal.
Photo by Matt Dahlseid
Mayor Webber stated that the de Vargas statue was being held in an undisclosed location for “safe keeping.” In February 2021, it was mysteriously found in a backyard, on private property. The Mayor and City Manager were both allegedly “misinformed” on the storage whereabouts after the statue’s removal. Following this discovery, leaders from Caballeros de Vargas expressed a desire to have the statue back so that they could preserve, maintain, and store it.
In 1680 the Native Americans living in the central New Mexico region drove out the Spanish colonizers in what is known today as the Pueblo Revolt. Years later, Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas invaded the region and re-conquered the indigenous people living on that land. A monument erected in the likeness of de Vargas has been standing in the city of Santa Fe, NM since 2007, donated by the religious group Caballeros de Vargas.
Photo by Matt Dahlseid