Aug. 10 — The idea of a new location for the Plaza obelisk seemed too polarizing to explore when it was floated more than a year ago by some of Santa Fe City Councilwoman Carol Romero-Wirth’s constituents, she said.
But when gun violence erupted in September during a protest over plans to re-erect a controversial monument in Española, she began to reconsider her decision. She thought the Santa Fe National Cemetery might be the right place for the obelisk, known as the Soldiers’ Monument.
The shooting that wounded a Native American activist from Washington state outside a government building in Rio Arriba County signaled that it would not be safe to return the obelisk to the center of Santa Fe Plaza, where it stood for more than 150 years before protesters toppled it on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2020.
“It became clear to me that we had to look for an alternative,” Romero-Wirth said Friday.
She and two other council members, Amanda Chavez and Alma Castro, are now sponsoring a resolution calling on city officials to study the feasibility of moving the obelisk to the national cemetery, “preferably close to where the Civil War soldiers commemorated by the monument are buried,” the motion said.
Like the massive bronze statue of controversial Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate in Rio Arriba County, the obelisk has angered some Native peoples for decades. Although it was primarily erected to honor Union soldiers in the Civil War in the late 1860s, it was also dedicated to soldiers who died fighting Native peoples, described in an inscription as “savage Indians.”
The destruction led to years of emotional conflict between those who demanded that the city be rebuilt to its original state and those who believed that it should never exist again.
Romero-Wirth’s resolution, which was scheduled to be presented at a council meeting on Wednesday, drew immediate criticism after it was made public on Friday.
“This proposal is going to create controversy…at a time when our community is extremely frustrated and angry about the current situation,” said Councilman Michael Garcia, citing recent violent crime, a rise in homelessness and rising housing prices.
“This is a time when we need to come together as a community, and this resolution will only pit people against each other,” he added.
Councilmembers Lee Garcia and Pilar Faulkner, who represent Santa Fe’s predominantly Hispanic southern District 3, both said they would not support the resolution.
“I don’t think I can support moving the obelisk at this point,” Lee Garcia said. “There’s just too much history for me and the people I know.”
Faulkner said she believes the community deserves another chance to discuss the obelisk’s future and reach a resolution that everyone is happy with — “or at least equally unhappy.”
“This resolution may provide an opportunity to have a discussion about this, so I appreciate it for that reason,” she said, “but I probably won’t be able to support it.”
Lee Garcia and Michael Garcia have expressed concerns about whether the city actually owns the monument and has the authority to move it. They said they filed a motion with the city attorney’s office early this year that would have directed city staff to investigate the obelisk’s ownership, but the city attorney has not moved forward.
“I think this resolution got through much faster,” Lee Garcia said of Romero-Wirth’s measure.
City officials said they had no doubts the city owned the obelisk.
Lee Garcia also questioned the wisdom of moving forward with plans for the obelisk while a lawsuit over the issue is pending.
The proposed resolution comes as the city is set to appear in court on Sept. 12 over a civil complaint filed by the Union Protectíva de Santa Fé. The Spanish-language brotherhood organization sued Mayor Alan Webber in 2022 for calling for the obelisk’s removal in June 2020 ahead of a planned protest.
Cultural reckoning
When the mayor called for the removal of the Soldiers’ Monument, along with a statue of Don Diego de Vargas in nearby Cathedral Park and an obelisk on federal land honoring frontier man Christopher “Kit” Carson, a nationwide movement against monuments to controversial figures and events emerged. In New Mexico, there were calls for the removal of many monuments, including the statue of Oñate in Rio Arriba County and the Plaza obelisk.
On June 15, 2020, the Oñate monument was removed from a location in Alcalde, amid fears that a demonstration led by indigenous activists would lead to vandalism or violence.
That same day, a violent incident occurred at an event at the Oñate Memorial in Albuquerque, leaving a man with a gunshot wound.
Four months later, the Plaza obelisk was destroyed. Indigenous activists and their allies pulled it down in sections using ropes and chains at the end of a three-day rally.
Nearly a year ago, the Kit Carson monument was similarly vandalized.
The Vargas statue was placed in storage for protection in 2020. It was recently installed at the New Mexico History Museum. As part of the same city initiative aimed at easing cultural tensions, a statue of two key figures in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 went on display at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center last week.
Meanwhile, the city has stored parts of the Soldiers’ Monument for almost four years, with the plinth still standing in a wooden box on the square.
The Albuquerque-based nonprofit Artful Life, which was hired by the city to lead a nearly year-long process of gathering community feedback on public art and monuments and how to address the obelisk, made several recommendations in a 2022 report. But the city took no immediate action.
Romero-Wirth and other council members last year introduced a motion to restore the obelisk in its entirety and install a modified version of the monument in the plaza. However, the motion was withdrawn after it was met with fierce opposition from both sides in the conflict.
Artful Life adviser Valerie Martínez said at the time that the proposal was “poorly conceived” and did not allow for ongoing community involvement, as the group had recommended.
Martínez was not available for comment on the new resolution on Friday.
Union Protectíva president Virgil Vigil called the resolution “just talk” and said he did not believe the city would succeed in moving the obelisk to the cemetery.
“This monument doesn’t fit there,” he said.
The organization has called for the monument to be restored to its original location, but Vigil said he would support removing offensive language about Native Americans.
“All you have to do is remove that one plaque,” he said.
“It seemed fitting”
The proposal, which will be voted on Aug. 28, would direct the city manager to determine whether it is feasible to proceed with the monument’s restoration and relocation to the Santa Fe National Cemetery, including removing the plaque, which has long been offensive to Native Americans.
The measure describes in detail what has been disputed for 115 years over the monument “and its location on the Plaza”:
* In 1909, Governor Bransford Prince publicly opposed a proposal to delete the word “Rebel” from three places on the plaques and add “Confederate.”
* In July 1973, the City Council voted to remove the entire monument after receiving a letter from Governor Bruce King requesting that the offensive plaque about Native Americans be removed. The measure was later rescinded.
* In 1974, the word “savage” was chiseled away by someone and Pueblo leaders urged the city not to repair the damage.
* In 2000, the Santa Fe chapter of the NAACP proposed using the National Cemetery as a better location for the memorial.
Romero-Wirth said the cemetery must be formally approached by the city before talks can begin.
A representative for the cemetery was not available for comment Friday.
The effort would involve assessing the obelisk’s structure and what’s left of it, and determining how it could be rebuilt. Romero-Wirth said she spoke with an architect who noted the process of moving Cleopatra’s Needles from Cairo in the 19th century. The two ancient obelisks now stand in London and New York.
“I think it would be expensive to move it to another street these days, but it probably could be done,” Romero-Wirth said of the Soldiers’ Monument.
Lisa Fisher said she and her husband, Rick Fisher, were the ones who approached Romero-Wirth about the possibility of moving the monument to the national cemetery, where the first Civil War soldiers were buried.
“It seemed fitting that it would be there,” she said. “We would like to see the city solve this very difficult problem in a way that satisfies as many people as possible.”
Lisa Fisher said the couple spoke with the cemetery director, who expressed support for their idea, but acknowledged that it would require federal approval.
Chavez and Castro did not respond to requests for comment on their support for the measure.
Councilman Jamie Cassutt was unavailable for comment on the proposal.
Councilwoman Signe Lindell said the national cemetery would be a suitable location for the memorial.
“There are Civil War soldiers buried here, and it would be nice to have a Soldiers’ Memorial to honor them,” she said.
Webber also spoke out in support of the plan on Friday, thanking Romero-Wirth and her fellow sponsors for taking action on “one of the most divisive issues in Santa Fe.”
He said he felt it was a fitting way to honor the soldiers who fought to keep New Mexico out of the Confederacy.
“The idea of bringing the monument to their final resting place is a creative and appropriate solution,” said the mayor.
While the proposal will undoubtedly face resistance, even those who don’t support it can agree on one thing: Now that the Plaza has been up for four years and the base of the felled obelisk is still encased in plywood, something has to be done.
As Webber put it, “Nobody is happy with the status quo.”
