La Plaza: Is Elon Musk Coming to New Mexico?

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

So much news, so little time.

Our governor is currently in talks on two big issues, both of which could have big benefits for our state. Sadly, she also felt the need last week to appeal to the lowest common denominator of her party and its Reagan-worshiping base by playing the great GOP superhero, Line-Item Veto Woman. And of course, the line items that were struck were, disproportionately, programs and initiatives to help people of color and members of other underrepresented and underserved populations.

Those will get covered in a separate edition. For now, we've actually got something promising to discuss.

The big economic news in New Mexico right now is the fact that we seem to be short-listed for the proposed Tesla plant. The plant would not manufacture cars, but rather, the lithium-ion batteries that power Tesla's electric vehicles. 

Strong Women: Angelina Sanchez and Rosaura Revueltas

Angelina Sanchez
Photo credit: Sanchez family; all rights reserved.

Since today is International Women's Day, it seemed appropriate to incorporate a bit of an international theme. Okay, so it's only two countries, both in North America: the United States and Mexico. But both play a role in this story of two strong women brought together by an important event in New Mexico's history, an event that would wind up testing both in vastly different yet undeniably related ways.

Even if you live in New Mexico, unless you live in a very specific area of the state and have knowledge of a specific incident from more than an half-century ago, you've probably never heard of Angelina G. Sanchez. She was not a native New Mexican, but she moved to the state as a young woman, intent on dedicating herself to protecting the rights of Mexican-American and women workers. She joined the Ladies' Auxiliary of the United Mineworkers of America, and she played a significant role in the UMA's strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in Bayard, New Mexico, in 1951.

La Plaza: There's a Lot Riding on Taos's New Mayor and Councilors

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

For once, Tuesday's election brought good news locally: Taos voters finally got it sufficiently together to boot Darren Córdova from the mayor's office.

The Taos News, the local weekly, inexplicably (or perhaps not so much) endorsed Córdova for re-election, despite his thoroughly dismal record. That record includes, among other things, an ill-advised effort to annex county lands for his airport scheme; a disastrous boondoggle of a "command center" with emergency dispatch services that fail to function; and a near-constant stream of charges of self-dealing and promotion of his many local businesses via his public agenda. Of course, that hasn't stopped him from trying to take credit for every single "project" in town and the immediate county environs, whether he was involved in any meaningful way or not, whether anything came of them or not. 

Two new members were elected to the town council: Judy Cantú and Fritz Hahn, neither of them "new" to the area or to local politics. Cantú comes from an old Hispanic political family; her father was mayor here decades ago. Hahn, a local business owner, is well-known and well-liked, and is one of Wings's old friends. A lot of folks are hopeful that their election will mean increased productivity for town government, and a less adversarial relationship with the county. For those of us who live outside the town limits, the latter prospect is especially attractive, assuming that it actually comes to pass.

With regard to Mayor-Elect Dan Barrone, it remains to be seen whether he'll be the reformer that he promises. Right now, he has a great deal of goodwill banked. But a lot of hopes are riding on his tenure, and it's not going to be easy. There's a lot of damage to undo: a lot of barriers to tear down; a lot of fences to mend; and as always, the diverse and divergent, disparate, downright parochial nature of politics in Taos County to work around, over, under, or through just to get the most basic jobs accomplished.

This household wishes luck to the new administration and new councilors. For that matter, we wish luck to all of us.

Strong Women: Soledad Chávez Chacón

Today, I'd like you to meet one of the most significant people in New Mexico political history that almost no one's ever heard of:  Soledad Chávez Chacón.

Why one of the most important?

Because she was the first Hispanic woman in New Mexico to be elected to statewide office, the first woman in the state to serve as Acting Governor, and the first woman in the entire country to be elected as her state's Secretary of State. In 1922.

Coming Up:

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

Later today, I'll have another entry — this one a local-ish one — in my Strong Women series.

This week, watch for more on Indian issues; more New Mexico topics; more on the environment; and another post for someone (known to many of you) who needs our help. Lots to cover this week, in a very small amount of spare time.

And as always, much as I hate it, if you'd like to support coverage of these topics, you know what to do.

La Plaza: Priorities. We Don't Haz 'Em.

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

When the lead news story in the state is the fact that NMSU has suspended an Aggie guard for his role in a postgame brawl, it's pretty obvious that the priorities of both the state's [alleged] policymakers and its punditocracy are sadly misplaced.

Or nonexistent, even.

The New Mexico Lege concluded its "short session" last week. Sessions alternate: A so-called "full session" occurs each odd-numbered year, which is to say, 60 whole whopping days out of 365. That's it. That's a full legislative session in New Mexico. Even-numbered years, like this year, are limited to 30-day sessions. Fewer days than in the entire month of January.

It's a disgrace.

La Plaza: Selling NM's Black History; Undermining Marriage Equality; Risking Young Native Lives

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

MAJOR LEGACY OF NEW MEXICO'S BUFFALO SOLDIERS NOW AWAITING DESTRUCTION

I wrote a few days ago about the impending threat to Fort Bayard, a state and federal historic site in southwestern New Mexico that embodies a major part of the state's African American history.

Since the 2014 legislative session ended yesterday with no attempt to salvage the historically significant landmark (nor to accomplish much else, as is usual with the state Lege), it appears that the old fort and its campus await destruction, with the land to be sold off to monied private interests.

Obstacles to its sale remain, to be sure, but General Services Secretary Ed Burckle appears to be pushing for a fast track to privatization:

La Plaza

Photo copyright Wings, 2014; all rights reserved.

In the oldest traditional villages across New Mexico, there is still one common feature and feature of the commons:  the plaza.

It's the public square, the place where the community meets to talk, share, argue, debate, sing, dance, and join together in common purpose.  Here, plazas predated the arrival of the first Europeans by centuries, perhaps millennia.  Nonetheless, like so much else in New Mexico, the old words for it are long since lost to public use, supplanted, accurately or not, by the Spanish labels.

And so it is with la plaza.

So I've chosen it as the name of a new series on this site: a semi-regular round-up of New Mexico news, issues, problems, causes, and whatever else from the state seems worthy of mention.

Most of the time, it won't feature the big national stories.  You can read those anywhere.  I want to focus on the stories that fly below the radar, the ones that have significant impacts in ways that are not necessarily immediately obvious, the ones that embody the essential New Mexico.  

This doesn't mean I won't write about subjects in the headlines; I may very well do a dedicated piece to, say, the leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant [WIPP] near Carlsbad.  Or I may incorporate a story like the one out of Valencia County, where a 15-year-old stands accused of the brutal murder of his 12-year-old friend, into a larger piece about the problems of youth violence in this state.  But those are more likely to be stand-alone pieces, not part of the series.  And pieces that do appear in this series may very well serve as springboards for lengthier analyses of their subjects.

With any luck, the first edition will be coming up later this evening.  I hope you enjoy it.



Copyright Ajijaakwe, 2014; all rights reserved.

Black History Month in New Mexico III: Blackdom

Photo of David Profitt House, Blackdom; image credit Museum of New Mexico.

This is the last of three posts designed to bring you a taste of the contributions African Americans have made to New Mexico history and culture.  Nothing in any of these posts is intended to be all-inclusive; it's merely a sepia-toned snapshot of three distinct points in the state's historical timeline that go too often unremarked and unremembered.  

New Mexico makes much of its triracial inclusion and harmony (which, truth be told, is not so much as an inch deep, but that's another diary).  What isn't obvious to folks from elsewhere is that the three races to which it refers are, as they are known in the polite version of local parlance, "Anglos," "Hispanics," and "Indians."  In most of the state, African Americans aren't even on the public radar screen (nor are Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders, people of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent, or those of Caribbean ancestry - but, again, that's another diary).

According to the 2010 census, African Americans constitute 12.6% of the national population.  In New Mexico, that figure drops to a scant 2.1%.  [Despite the fact that the U.S. stole this land from Mexico, which in turn had stolen it from the indigenous populations, 68.4% of New Mexico's total population comprises "Anglos," whether "Hispanic" or "non-Hispanic."]

African American history and culture are a bit of a unicorn in this state:  occasionally reported, but mostly elusive, and largely invisible to all but those who actually go looking for it.  And yet, Black Americans have a long and storied history in New Mexico, with a vibrant presence predating statehood by half a century.  It's long past time for that presence to assume its rightful place in the state's past and present.

Come with me.  I'm going to take you on a little tour of three New Mexico towns that play a role in African American history.

Black History Month in New Mexico II: The "Battles for Socorro"

Photo credit Bureau of Land Management

This is the second of three posts designed to bring you a taste of the contributions African Americans have made to New Mexico history and culture.  As I said yesterday, nothing in any of these posts is intended to be all-inclusive; it's merely a sepia-toned snapshot of three distinct points in the state's historical timeline that go too often unremarked and unremembered.  

New Mexico makes much of its triracial inclusion and harmony (which, truth be told, is not so much as an inch deep, but that's another diary).  What isn't obvious to folks from elsewhere is that the three races to which it refers are, as they are known in the polite version of local parlance, "Anglos," "Hispanics," and "Indians."  In most of the state, African Americans aren't even on the public radar screen (nor are Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders, people of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent, or those of Caribbean ancestry - but, again, that's another diary).

According to the 2010 census, African Americans constitute 12.6% of the national population.  In New Mexico, that figure drops to a scant 2.1%.  [Despite the fact that the U.S. stole this land from Mexico, which in turn had stolen it from the indigenous populations, 68.4% of New Mexico's total population comprises "Anglos," whether "Hispanic" or "non-Hispanic."]

African American history and culture are a bit of a unicorn in this state:  occasionally reported, but mostly elusive, and largely invisible to all but those who actually go looking for it.  And yet, Black Americans have a long and storied history in New Mexico, with a vibrant presence predating statehood by half a century.  It's long past time for that presence to assume its rightful place in the state's past and present.

Come with me.  I'm going to take you on a little tour of three New Mexico towns that play a role in African American history.

Black History Month In New Mexico: Buffalo Soldiers

This is the first of three pieces designed to bring you a taste of the contributions African Americans have made to New Mexico history and culture.  Nothing in any of these pieces is intended to be all-inclusive; it's merely a sepia-toned snapshot of three distinct points in the state's historical timeline that go too often unremarked and unremembered. 

New Mexico makes much of its triracial inclusion and harmony (which, truth be told, is not so much as an inch deep, but that's another story).  What isn't obvious to folks from elsewhere is that the three races to which it refers are, as they are known in the polite version of local parlance, "Anglos," "Hispanics," and "Indians."  In most of the state, African Americans aren't even on the public radar screen (nor are Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders, people of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent, or those of Caribbean ancestry - but, again, that's another story). 

According to the 2010 census, African Americans constitute 12.6% of the national population.  In New Mexico, that figure drops to a scant 2.1%.  [Despite the fact that the U.S. stole this land from Mexico, which in turn had stolen it from the indigenous populations, 68.4% of New Mexico's total population comprises "Anglos," whether "Hispanic" or "non-Hispanic."] 

African American history and culture are a bit of a unicorn in this state:  occasionally reported, but mostly elusive, and largely invisible to all but those who actually go looking for it.  And yet, Black Americans have a long and storied history in New Mexico, with a vibrant presence predating statehood by half a century.  It's long past time for that presence to assume its rightful place in the state's past and present. 

Come with me.  I'm going to take you on a little tour of three New Mexico towns that play a role in African American history.