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Introduction
- University of Nebraska Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction On a sunny spring day in 2002 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S. senator Jeff Bingaman announced plans to establish the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area. Designated by Congress, national heritage areas are both places and administrative frameworks . They cover nationally significant, living cultural landscapes and provide a way for local communities to partner with the federal government to promote historic preservation, cultural conservation, economic development, education, recreation, and environmental protection. North-central New Mexico ranges from high desert to forested mountains and has a long history of multicultural settlement (see fig. 1). The heritage area would commemorate the four-hundred-year “coexistence” of Spanish and Indian peoples in this region and recognize New Mexico’s place within the United States. Bingaman’s announcement took place in the courtyard of the Palace of the Governors, an adobe building on the north side of the Santa Fe plaza. Constructed around 1610, the Palace served as the administrative center of New Mexico for three hundred years. Spaniards, Mexicans, Americans, and Pueblo Indians all occupied the Palace at different times, asserting their authority over the region and its diverse population. In 1909 the territorial legislature converted the building into a museum of history and anthropology , and since then it has become Santa Fe’s best-developed historic site. The Palace of the Governors therefore embodies the complex relationship among colonialism, multiculturalism, and heritage preservation in New Mexico. 2 Introduction Given contentious ethnic relations in this region, suspicion toward the federal government, unsettled land and water rights claims, and worries about tourism, Bingaman’s announcement raised some concerns. At the senator’s side to help explain what the heritage area designation would mean was Ernest Ortega, the New Mexico state director of the National Park Service (the agency that oversees the national heritage area program). Bingaman wore a suit and tie, Ortega his gray-and-green Park Service uniform . Ortega stressed that heritage areas are commemorative designations that bring up to ten million dollars in federal funds over fifteen years for projects and programs. Unlike national parks, they involve no new land regulation, a serious concern in the western United States. The federal government already managed almost 60 percent of the land in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and Taos Counties, which make up the heritage area. This included Indian land and former Spanish and Mexican land grants (communal land given to settlers and largely broken up by Americans). Representatives of several Pueblos, including the governor of San Fig. 1. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of Santa Fe. [3.94.150.98] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 02:33 GMT) Introduction 3 Juan Pueblo, expressed tentative support for the heritage area and asked why they had not been more involved in the planning process (Tollefson 2002). Bingaman’s legislation did specifically protect private property rights and mandate Native American representation (see the appendix). According to the legislation, the top two reasons for establishing the heritage area were that “northern New Mexico encompasses a mosaic of cultures and history, including 8 Pueblos and the descendants of Spanish ancestors who settled in the area in 1598” and that “the combination of cultures, languages, folk arts, customs, and architecture make northern New Mexico unique.”1 This multicultural affirmation is a far cry from earlier American attitudes toward New Mexico and its residents. After the United States acquired half of Mexico’s territory in 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Americans began to dispossess Hispanics and Indians of their land and forcibly assimilate them. New Mexico did not become a state until 1912, largely due to fears that the region was too different to be integrated into the nation , and only after a concerted effort to Americanize New Mexico ’s economy, culture, and architecture. In 2002 the federal government ’s recognition of New Mexico not despite of but because of its cultural distinctiveness illustrated how much attitudes toward cultural difference had changed in the United States. Bingaman ’s proposal quickly received bipartisan support from New Mexico’s entire congressional delegation. In 2006 President Bush signed into law a bill establishing the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area and nine other heritage areas in other parts of the country.2 Colonialism and Multiculturalism This book explores the relationship between colonialism and multiculturalism , two seemingly opposite political projects that have long coexisted in New Mexico. Colonizers are usually ethnocentric . When Spaniards began colonizing New Mexico in 1598 they assumed that their...