May 29 – It was a mismatch that should never have happened.
City Manager John Blair, 50, stepped close to an 85-year-old man to lead him away from a mayoral news conference.
The older man, Elmer Maestas, has atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that can make him dizzy and short of breath. He told Blair to back off or he would be arrested.
Maestas was more at risk than the city manager. Two police officers entered the room, took Maestas by the arms and led him to the foyer.
“Mr Maestas was asked several times to stop interrupting the press conference,” Blair wrote in an email. He said neither he nor Mayor Alan Webber had asked police to intervene.
For his part, Maestas said a city councilor tipped him off last week about Webber’s press conference on proposed legislation to place important monuments of historical figures in public places. Maestas didn’t think much of the mayor’s plan, and he planned to say so publicly.
A bronze statue of Spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas that Webber removed from Cathedral Park in 2020 would go on display at the New Mexico History Museum. A sculpture of two Tesuque tribesmen involved in the bloody Pueblo Revolt of 1680 would be housed at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
Webber called his initiative a positive development. He has put the measure on the legislative highway. Webber and a majority of the City Council will vote for it next month, but their half-steps won’t bring the community closer together.
Maestas was curious about the mayor and his legislation and wanted to ask Webber why only certain parts of the city were consulted before the proposal was unveiled. Blair interrupted Maestas and said there would be a time for community members to speak, but not at the press conference.
When the police intervened, Maestas felt intimidated. “I was shaky. I didn’t want to go back in,” he said. “My wife and I decided to go home, but I had to sit in my car for a while. I was still shaking.”
Maestas was not the only one removed from the press conference.
Police Chief Paul Joye told me his officers removed three other people for being “disruptive.” Joye said he did not have any police reports, if any, and did not know the names of the others who were removed.
It is already clear that Webber’s legislation will not assuage anger over his decision to remove the De Vargas statue from a public park. Webber said at the time that he did this to prevent violent protests.
Yet his police staff allowed violence on the Plaza as it retreated when a mob of mostly white people destroyed the 152-year-old Soldiers Monument in October 2020. There is now a wooden box on that spot.
Union Protectíva de Santa Fé, a Spanish organization, sued the city in hopes of restoring the shattered stone obelisk. The case will be heard in Santa Fe District Court on September 9.
The monument primarily honored Union soldiers who stopped the advance of the Confederate army in New Mexico and helped the North win the Civil War. However, many people disliked a panel on the obelisk that referred to “wild” Indians. Someone with a chisel removed the offensive word in 1974, but certain groups still wanted the monument destroyed.
The crowd that tore the obelisk apart with hammers, ropes and chains went largely unpunished. Eight defendants attended a secret mediation session with a handful of community members. The vandals paid fines averaging $1,900 and performed 40 hours of community service.
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies defied reason and claimed their crimes in destroying the centerpiece of a National Historic Landmark were not violent.
Webber and the city then spent about $265,000 on consultants who helped organize community meetings on what should replace the Soldiers’ Monument. City council members, two of whom represented each quadrant, could have obtained the same information free of charge.
Either way, the suggestions wouldn’t have mattered because a lawsuit would have to decide the issue. More public money will likely be wasted on lawsuits before a decision can be made on what, if anything, should replace the obelisk.
There is only one option, a gamble, to reduce runaway spending and start healing raw wounds.
If Webber and the council are serious about ending the division, they should authorize the rebuilding of the Soldiers’ Monument, minus all the old inscriptions on the panels. Decorate the obelisk with a plaque explaining how the Union Army’s stand in New Mexico made freedom possible regardless of skin color.
No group should oppose the installation of a monument that highlights the uphill battle to end slavery. But this is Santa Fe, so any antics are possible.
Webber’s proposals will make more headlines. And Blair wrote conciliatoryly: ‘I am hopeful that Mr Maestas will participate in one or both meetings of the Governing Body and comment publicly on the resolution.’
The formal meetings on Webber’s proposal will do little to ease the hard feelings. Restoring trust starts and ends at the Plaza.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
