After three years, cries of “Viva!” filled the Plaza de Española once again, the collective response to the calls of “Que viva las fiestas! Que viva Juan de Oñate! Que viva Española!”
The Fiesta del Valle de Española returned, bringing three days filled with colorful dress, local music and fanfare to the valley.
The Fiesta represents
Many attendees treasured the opportunity to carry on a series of longstanding traditions. Some were eager for a celebration in any form. Still others arrived at the Fiesta by chance, pleasantly surprised to stumble upon the event.
James Espinoza, a former Fiesta council president, recalled past Fiestas that suffered constant, pouring rain. In the midst of a wet monsoon season, however, this year’s Fiesta weekend offered mostly sunny skies.
Espinoza was glad to see a sizeable crowd in spite of the ongoing pandemic that precluded the event for the last two summers.
“People are opening up, realizing that we have to deal with COVID, but we can’t ignore our history and our ancestors,” Espinoza said. “People have to be grateful for who they are, what they are and what they believe in.”
Addressing a crowd, Mayor John Ramon Vigil called the Fiesta “a time of reflection and celebration here in our valley,” saying “we have so many resources here to be thankful for, our water, our culture, heritage.”
Vendors lined the Plaza walkway selling tee shirts, novelties, local art and crafts and, of course, food.
Entertainment spanned from the traditional Mexican dancing of Pojoaque’s Baile Illusion group to flamenco to The Blue Ventures.
The Fiesta officially began Friday evening with a religious service at Santuario de Chimayó that included the crowning and dubbing of Fiesta royalty.
Mariachi Azteca led the new royal court, with Meryssa Romero as La Reina and Ray Griego as Juan de Oñate, into the ceremony conducted by Father Sebastián Lee.
Attendees presented Romero with flowers and listened as former royalty gave their blessing to the new court.
Lloyd Ortiz and Destiny Trujillo, who portrayed Oñate and La Reina in 2019, expressed their joy at seeing the tradition return.
Kimberly Appa-Cortez, a visiting member of the Taos royal court, attended the ceremony as well as other activities throughout the weekend. She said the Taos royal court was coronated two years ago and will finally pass down their roles later this month after two fiestas canceled due to COVID-19.
On Saturday morning, Gabriela Silva, director of Northern New Mexico Regional Art Center, hosted 22 children at the Bond Street facility for Youth Day gardening and art activities.
Silva led the young group in drafting their own family crests out of images that each child chose to represent themselves and their families. They copied their designs onto muslin flags and also pounded them into sheets of tin to make miniature shields.
“Whether you and your family are best represented by a church or a flower or a farm, it’s about creating you are,” Silva said. “That doesn’t have to be what anyone else tells you you are.”
Each young participant received a free bicycle donated by community members and organizations.
Wendy Wiesner and her daughter Caroline, of Denver, Colo., attended the Fiesta by accident.
The two have visited the Española valley annually for the last 12 years, often stopping at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center and Socorro’s Restaurant. The mother and daughter have typically made the trip in June, but this year they pushed it back a month and found themselves enjoying the Fiesta for the first time.
Wiesner was browsing in the Convento Art Gallery when a painting by local artist Paula Reid caught her eye.
“There is something especially welcoming about Española,” Wiesner said. “I’ve been to Santa Fe a lot, and this is just a great place to be. It’s very warm and authentic.”
Robert and Sheryl Casias, of Los Lunas, traveled to Española — just as they have for other New Mexico fiestas — primarily for the music. Robert Casias, a musician himself, loved to watch the late Al Hurricane perform. Upon arriving on Saturday, he was looking forward to seeing Hurricane’s son, Jerry Dean, play that night for the Gran Baile.
“We love to dance, and we used to be great dancers,” Casias said. “But I’m a people person. Just being able to sit out here and talk and be around people is beautiful.”
The El Valle History Conference offered lectures from historians in the Bond House Museum.
Two presentations, from geographer Roberto Valdez and former state historian Roberto Torrez, were concerned with the legacy of Juan de Oñate, which has drawn considerable attention since the 1990s.
Torrez, speaking about Oñate’s 1598 order to cut off the feet (or toes) of an unknown number of Acoma men and force them into servitude, said the decision was “by contemporary standards barbarous, but it was a judicial sentence.”
Torrez said the 1998 vandalism of the local Oñate statue shows that the vandals “felt the actions of individuals of centuries ago should be judged by 20th century morals and ethics,” an approach to history that he warned against.
Españolan Luis Peña was not at the conference, but he has called for the elimination of Oñate from Española Fiesta traditions for years.
“There is a difference between judging them against historical standards and continuing to exonerate them through pageantry or a monument,” Peña said during a phone call. “There’s a big difference.”
Peña said he is not against people gathering or funnel cakes or music, but rather the involvement of Oñate.
“The request I have put in year after year is to remove Oñate himself,” Peña said. “What I want is for the small group of people who are pushing the portrayal of Oñate forward, is to understand that Española is not insulated from the socio-political dynamics of the world ... Is Oñate the best portrayal of who we are as people here in northern New Mexico? In removing Onate we could actually begin to start having a true telling of who we it is that we are and the multiple struggles that we have had with our native neighbors here in New Mexico.”
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