Politics of Memory—Oñate Expedition & the Acoma Massacre

Setting & Background

• Expedition leader: Juan de Oñate, a Spanish conquistador assigned to expand the northern frontier of New Spain into what is now New Mexico.
• Arrival: winter of $1598$—harsh weather, few supply lines along the Camino Real from Zacatecas / Mexico City.
• Pueblo under discussion: Acoma ("Sky City")—built atop a high mesa; residents referred to as “sky people.”
• Larger course theme: Politics of Memory—how dominant historical narratives erase colonial violence and shape regional identities.

Immediate Pre-Massacre Chain of Events

• Supply Crisis: Oñate’s party lacks food; he sends his nephew Juan de Zaldívar (≈31 soldiers) to Acoma to request/ demand provisions.
• Acoma Refusal: Already wary (reports from neighboring pueblos), Acoma bar entry.
• Zaldívar’s Violation: Disobeys, forces entry, ransacks homes, documented sexual assaults; one soldier steals two turkeys (detail cited in sources).
• Acoma Counter-Attack: Returning warriors kill Zaldívar and most of the Spanish contingent.

The Sham Trial & Declaration of “War by Blood and Fire”

• Oñate’s Trial (held without Acoma defense counsel): finds the pueblo guilty of treason against the Crown.
• Legal Maneuver: Declares guerra a sangre y fuego (war by blood & fire).
  • Colonial rule allowed this only during “states of emergency.”
  • Effect: suspends both royal and ecclesiastical laws that normally required “just cause” to wage war on Indigenous peoples.
• Illustrates how colonialism perpetuates a permanent state of emergency to racialize and criminalize the Other.

The Acoma Massacre (January $21,\,1599$)

• Forces: Oñate leads $70$ soldiers, $2$ small cannons.
• Outcome:
  • $\approx 800$ Acoma & neighboring Pueblo peoples killed.
  • Spanish casualties: $0$ (per records).
  • $500$ prisoners marched to temporary colonial capital (Ocaio Wingwe, later San Gabriel).
• Sentencing (pronounced by Oñate):
  • Children < $12$: declared “not guilty,” yet kidnapped to Catholic missions for forced Christianization.
  • Women > $12$ & men $12!\text{–}!25$: $20$-year servitude (de-facto slavery).
  • Two Hopi allies: right hand amputated—sent as living “warnings” to other pueblos.
  • Men > $25$: $20$-year servitude plus one foot amputated.
• Punishments publicly staged across multiple pueblos to deter resistance.

Erasure & Hero-Making

• Regional myth: Oñate celebrated as the “Founder of New Mexico.”
• Result: massacre details marginalized; Indigenous trauma unacknowledged.
• Example monuments:
  • Large equestrian statue in El Paso (airport entrance).
  • Additional statue erected in 1998 for the 400-year commemoration.
• Underlying motives: bolster Nuevo Mexicano pride in Spanish ancestry, cement Hispanic settler identity, present a unifying (but selective) origin story.

Monument Controversy & Symbolic Counter-Memory

• 1998 statue quickly vandalized: unknown individuals sawed off the bronze right foot of Oñate’s likeness.
  • Direct reference to Oñate’s historical punishment (foot amputation) of Acoma men.
• Albuquerque Journal Op-Ed (appearing months later):

“We see no glory in celebrating Oñate’s fourth centennial, and we do not want our faces rubbed in it. If you must speak of this expedition, speak the truth in all of its entirety.”

• Meaning: vandalism acts as counter-narrative—forces public to confront repressed colonial violence.

Discussion / Analytical Questions

• How does amputating the statue’s foot function as a material critique of colonial memory?
• Is Spanish-centric commemoration an attempt to erase Indigenous presence or to reconcile complex ancestry?
• How do Nuevo Mexicano identities negotiate pride in Hispanic heritage with acknowledgment of Indigenous suffering?
• What “silences” persist, and who benefits from them?

Continuing Indigenous Resistance & Alternative Storytelling

• 1992 quincentenary & subsequent years saw Native activists creating “medicinal histories” (healing through truth-telling).
• Artistic responses highlighted:
  • Border ballad / corrido praising Oñate (mainstream, celebratory).
  • Short animated film “Frontera” (assigned viewing): retells the Acoma narrative from Native perspective; challenges official historiography.
• Ongoing contestation underscores that history is actively produced, negotiated, and resisted.

Key Takeaways & Broader Significance

• Colonialism’s legal flexibility: invocation of emergency justifies otherwise-illegal brutality.
• Monuments as political texts: who is cast as hero vs. villain reveals prevailing power relations.
• Acts of vandalism become historical commentary—embodying demands for fuller truth.
• Case exemplifies how public memory can either perpetuate colonial erasure or open space for reconciliation, depending on whose voices prevail.