Hispanic pride, Indian anger over past clash Story-Date: 04:46 a.m. PST Tuesday , February 10, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ Hispanic pride, Indian anger over past clash By James Brooke New York Times ESPANOLA, N.M.ONE moonless night in early January, just as Hispanic New Mexicans were starting to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first Spanish settlement in the American West, an American Indian commando group stealthily approached a bronze statue here of the first conquistador, Don Juan de Onate. With an electric saw, the group slowly severed his right foot -- boot, stirrup, star-shaped spur and all. "We took the liberty of removing Onate's right foot on behalf of our brothers and sister of Acoma Pueblo," read a statement sent by the group, which later sent to news outlets a snapshot of its hostage foot. "We see no glory in celebrating Onate's fourth centennial, and we do not want our faces rubbed in it." The news quickly traveled from this lowland reservoir of Spanish culture 120 miles southwest to a mesa, where cheers echoed among the adobe brick houses of Acoma Pueblo. Since 1599, the Acoma had passed from generation to generation the tale of how Onate had punished the conquered Acoma by ordering his men to chop off the right feet of 24 captive warriors. "It was funny when it happened to the statue, but it wasn't funny when it happened to the real people," said Darrell Chino, an Acoma. At the Onate Monument and Visitors Center, Estevan Arrellano, the director, supervised the attachment of a new foot to the 12-foot-tall statue in late January. He groaned: "Give me a break -- it was 400 years ago. It's OK to hold a grudge, but for 400 years?" In recent years, some Americans have smugly rolled their eyes when Serbs obsessed over their rout in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, or Irish Catholics griped about their defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. But here in northern New Mexico, Indian, Hispanic and white residents are discovering that below their bland, homogenized landscape of franchise motels and restaurants, ancient history is exerting a powerful, subterranean pull. Hispanic residents are clinging to Onate out of insecurities over losing their language, culture, and political and demographic dominance. In recent years, Hispanic residents have slipped from majority to minority status as New Mexico has become a Sunbelt magnet for migrants from around the nation. Spanish no longer echoes around Santa Fe as the 10th generation of Spanish descendants has assimilated to the point of losing its ancestral language. In a year of anniversaries for Spanish America, the 400th anniversary of the first permanent European settlement in the American West has become a magnet for Hispanic pride. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the Spanish-American War, a conflict that stripped Spain of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. It is also the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which reduced Mexico's territory by one-half and increased U.S. territory by one-third. Outside of academia, Hispanic people here are largely ignoring these two anniversaries. "It's natural," said Patricia Limerick, a history professor at the University of Colorado. "You want to put the spotlight on the moment when your people look the most successful, enterprising and triumphant. After so many decades of celebrating Plymouth Rock, the Puritans and Jamestown, all this genuflecting at the shrine of English North America must get a little wearing if you are a New Mexican Hispanic." Around April 30, the 400th anniversary of the day when Onate crossed the Rio Grande at El Paso, a Spanish delegation -- including an Onate descendant -- is to travel to Santa Fe by helicopter over the old Camino Real, an ox cart track that was the colonial link between Mexico and the new villages. In Santa Fe, Spain's vice president, Alvarez Cascos, is to unveil an Onate statue and a fresco on the Spanish colonization. In Albuquerque, he will break ground for a $25 million, federally financed Hispanic Cultural Center. But the 400th anniversary celebrations have highlighted the sometimes uneasy coexistence of Hispanics, whites and Indians. Stephanie Kearny contrasts Santa Fe's $500,000 yearlong commemoration of Spain's colonization with the official silence in 1996 on the 150th anniversary of the arrival in Santa Fe of her namesake and great-great-grandfather, Gen. Stephen Kearny. The American general's bloodless occupation of Santa Fe on Aug. 18, 1846, marked the first seizure of a foreign capital by American troops. On the anniversary, Kearny, two of her sisters, two historians and a reporter discreetly gathered in Santa Fe's central plaza and sipped champagne from plastic cups. Hispanic New Mexicans also wince at the mention of Pope, the Pueblo Indian hero. In 1680, Pope organized an Indian revolt that temporarily drove all Spanish colonists from New Mexico. Last summer, some Hispanics objected when Indian representatives suggested that a statue of Pope be erected in the U.S. Capitol. Arrellano said, "Pope tortured and killed 20 priests, and murdered countless numbers of women and children." The foot-chopping incident should not overshadow Onate's positive achievements, argued Marc Simmons, author of "The Last Conquistador: Juan de Onate and the Settling of the Far Southwest." "In what is now the Western United States, he was the founder of the livestock industry, the mining industry, and he opened the first major road, the Camino Real," Simmons said. "He brought Christianity and Western culture." ------------------------------------------------------------