SANTA FE, N. M. (AP) – Time ran out when Virgil Vigil transported wounded infantrymen to hospital in a medical evacuation helicopter during the Vietnam War.
Vigil, a retired former pilot and army colonel, said the 60 minutes of life and death are called golden hour.
“He’s going to pick up his patient at the site of the injury, anywhere,” he said. “If you can take this patient to the hospital for medical care (in less than an hour), their chances of survival are much higher. . “
Vigil, now 66, told Santa Fe New Mexican that he was fighting the clock again, but in a very different war in his hometown.
Spanish culture in Santa Fe is being attacked, dividing a village and leaving long-time Hispanic citizens who are very proud of their ancestry feeling hurt, said Vigil, president of the Protective Union of Santa Fe. has become a vocal actor in a thorny debate about ancient monuments.
Founded in 1915 and one of the oldest organizations of its kind, the Protective Union of Santa Fe entered the fray following the unilateral resolution of Mayor Alan Webber in June to remove a statue of spanish conquistador Don Diego de Vargas from a downtown park.
Destruction through protesters from the historic obelisk in the middle of Plaza Santa Fe on October 12 encouraged the group.
“The mayor has (jury) in place,” said Richard Barela, 70, vice president of the organization.
But tensions have been boiling for years after what members of the organization see as attacks on Spanish culture.
Among them, the resolution to finish the Entrance, a debatable recreation of the resurgence of Spain in Santa Fe after the Pueblo revolt of 1680, indigenous activists and others thought such as the show, component of the Feast of Santa Fe, revisionist history and a birthday. component of conquest.
But local Hispanics who traced their roots for generations felt irritated and saddened to see this end. The Santa Fe school board then voted to restrict the presence of The Royal Court of Fiesta, adding one of Vargas in disguise, in schools after others complained that the annual visits glorified Spanish colonization in what had been tribal land.
“Lately we’re in the golden age,” Vigil said. ” If we don’t stand up and avoid this attack on our history and culture, the patient will die, and that’s our history and culture. “
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Modest beginnings
For the Protective Union of Santa Fe, which has about 450 members, from carpenters to city personnel, the former mayor and the two-time vice governor of New Mexico, it is a matter of principle.
The organization created to “help maintain the language and culture of Santa Fe . . . for generations and descendants of the first Spanish settlers,” according to their website.
The organization still holds its meetings and reports in Spanish on its commitment to keeping the language alive.
Their first mission, however, was to help families pay for “appropriate Christian burials,” a practice that continues today.
“When one of the members dies, we make a $2,500 donation to members of the family circle to help cover the costs of their burial,” Vigil said. “At one point, he paid for the funeral, but not anymore.
In recent weeks, the organization has spent cash on advertisements in newspapers that call, among other things, for the return of the statue of Vargas to the cathedral park. said he may become violent after a shooting in Albuquerque involving a statue of some other conqueror, Juan de O’en.
Officials of the Protective Union of Santa Fe refused to reveal the main points of their finances, but said it was financially sound.
“We could just fund an (announcement) opposite to what’s happening in the city today every week and that probably wouldn’t even make us a breach,” Vigil said.
“We’ve grown a lot,” said outgoing Santa Fe County treasurer Patrick “Pat” Varela, who had the organization invest his money. “I use my business skills for the organization. “
Barela said Union Protectiva has an estimated $14 million in genuine real estate assets, adding the former Second Ward School on Sandoval Street, which it rents for weddings and other events. The organization has other rental properties, especially in Acequia Madre and Camino del Monte Sol. , in the prosperous east of the city.
In 2008, the vanquished Rafael Ortiz Jr. , then president of the organization, said members paid a penny a month to cover union fees. Today, members pay $35 a year.
Former Santa Fe Mayor Joseph Valdez, 90, paid about 25 cents a week when he arrived.
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‘Union’, ‘protection’, ‘instruction’
In addition to Valdez, the organization has several other prominent Hispanics among its members: former Lieutenant Governor Roberto Mondragón, former Santa Fe County Sheriff Eddie Armijo, former Santa Fe City Councilman Ron Trujillo, and State Representative Joseph Sánchez de Mayor. Republican Congressman Manuel Luzhn Jr. is a member.
Most members are Catholic and Hispanic, but none are required to join, Barela said, adding that the organization has about 30 members who are white.
“We are looking for other people who need to be part of this organization, who must adhere to our principles, our pillars and who will help us in that,” Barela said. “This is the kind of individual we’re looking for. “
The organization has 3 principles, all oriented to Spanish culture: union or unity; coverage or coverage and instruction, or education.
Recruitment is basically done word of mouth, but the club is a tradition of the family circle.
The organization is not exactly a surname, it is familiar to the Hispanic families of Santa Fe for a long time.
Her presence has been mainly in Spanish cultural events, such as participation in devout processions, the provision of financial aid to the City Council of Santa Fe Fiesta and the Knights of Vargas, and the sponsorship of aspirants vying for the role of Reina de Fiesta, or La Reina y Vargas.
“The Protective Union, if it blesses you, (the candidates) win,” Barela said with a laugh.
Elena Tercero, daughter of former Santa Fe county commissioner Miguel Chavez, another member of the organization, said she revered being sponsored through the organization when she effectively competed to be The Queen in the late 1990s.
“At 18, I sought to make them as proud as they could be chosen as a candidate that year, regardless of the outcome,” she said.
Third said the organization is helping to keep the history of Santa Fe and New Mexico alive, as is The Folk Society.
“These two organizations, when I grew up, worked a lot together, and most of the time the husband belonged to one and the wife to the other,” he says. “They brought me elements of living cultural diversity as I grew older. things I need to communicate more about in everyday conversations, not just about the topics that other people know about holidays and what they mean.
Today, verbal exchange has more politics.
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“Colonialism and white supremacy”
The organization’s leaders blame Webber for the controversy over the historic monuments, accusing him of listening to what they call teams of “radical” indigenous activists like the Tres Hermanas Collective and La Nación Roja.
“The governors of the towns recognize those Three Sisters, they recognize the Red Nation and say they speak on their behalf,” Vigil said.
Neither the Three Sisters Collective nor the Red Nation responded by requesting comments, however, the Three Sisters Collective posted the New Mexican’s written request on its Instagram and Facebook pages.
“We have no challenge with our Hispanic/Northern/Spanish/Latinx parents, but with the white supremacist systems that continue in our two communities,” they wrote in the messages. “Displacement and erasure are challenges in which our communities have a not unusual percentage of truth and perspective, any of which has its roots in ongoing colonialism and white supremacy. We ask that no commentator spit out racist or violent comments towards (the journalist) or the Hispanic community.
In the midst of a national report on race and social justice, Webber asked during the summer for the removal of 3 monuments in Santa Fe: the statue of Vargas; the obelisk of the square, committed to the “heroes” who fought the “wild savages”; and an obelisk about federal assets in honor of Christopher “Kit” Carson, a pioneer who led military campaigns opposed to Native Americans.
The mayor was able to remove the Vargas statue from the cathedral park in June and then gave the impression at the level of the Plaza with the Three Sisters Collective.
The obelisk of the Square, a designated national historical monument, proved more difficult.
Activists became impatient and took on issues in their own hands on Indigenous Peoples Day, tearing down the obelisk after police left the site.
“The mayor has not assumed a duty to protect our city, protect monuments, protect people,” said Vigil, who explored an effort to remove Webber, but said he was unlikely to release him in time due to major demands.
Vigil, who exchanged words with Webber outdoors at a place to eat downtown in September about the removal of the vargas statue, has seriously opposed the mayor, accusing him of “deliberately” turning his back on protecting the obelisk from destruction. The incident played for the mayor’s benefit, he said.
On Friday, Webber called a “false conspiracy theory. “
Vigil is more than ancient monuments what is at stake.
“You see a trfinish happening, ” he said. We have to get rid of this trfinish because it’s like a domino game. Hit the first domino, then everyone starts to fall. That’s exactly what’s going on here. “