OP ED
THE POLITICS OF RACE
by
Juan José Peña, BA, MA, Ph.D. Candidate
The politics of race are nothing new in New Mexico. They were used by the Anglos who invaded New Mexico to deprive the land grant heirs of their common and private land; they have been used to keep native New Mexican Indohispanos out of political office from the mid 1800's to the present. My ancestral relative Manuel de la Peña y Peña, our last Mexican President, attempted to protect our rights to our land, culture, political participation, language, religion, etc. through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which the Anglo filibusterers, carpetbaggers, lawyers, judges and courts immediately proceeded to ignore (cf. "The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo" by Richard Griswold del Castillo). The Santa Fé Ring under the direction of Thomas B. Catron, Stephen B. Elkins, et. al. proceed to divest New Mexico's Indohispanos aided and abetted by the Surveyor General and the Court of Private Land Claims. The Lincoln County Ring under the leadership of Murphey, Doley, Riley and Copeland did the same thing to New Mexico's Indohispanos in Southern New Mexico. Some of New Mexico's most prominent political figures such as José Francisco Chávez in northern New Mexico and Juan Patrón in Southern New Mexico were assasinated because of their effectiveness in politically representing our people in the 1870's. Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo was denied the governorship on 48 consecutive votes where 74 Hispano delegates voted for Larrazolo and 36 Anglo delegates voted against him in the Republican State Convention. Anglos blocked an Hispano from becoming governor of New Mexico from 1920 until Jerry Apodaca was elected in 1975 and Toney Anaya in 1983. Both were elected because of the power and influence of the Chicano Movement. We have not had another Hispano Governor since 1986, 15 years, so we have had only 4 Hispano governors since statehood in 1912. Far too few.
The University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and Eastern New Mexico University have never had an Hispano President despite New Mexico being a principally Hispano state for at least half of the the last century. Educator Jorge Isidoro Sánchez, a native New Mexican considered the Dean of Hispano Education in Texas and Arturo León Campa, the Dean of New Mexican Folklorists were hounded out the New University of New Mexico for their attempts to improve the standing of New Mexican Indohispanos as professors at the University of New Mexico in the 1930's and 1940's. When Gary Carruthers was Governor of New Mexico, his administration was notorious for its lack of Hispano representation on his administration and for his exclusion of Hispanos from state boards, commissions, agencies and judgeships (he selected 0 Hispano judges during his administration). When Gary Johnson became governor, he removed countless Hispanos who had spent years and decades working their way dilligently up the ladder in their agencies only to replace them with Anglos who in turn discriminated against the Hispano remaining in those agencies. He displace Hispanos on the state boards and commissions with Anglos who displace Hispanos in the administrations down to the middle levels and discriminated against the remainder. This has been especially true in the universities and nowhere more than at the University of New Mexcio, where there is only 1 Hispano in the President's Cabinet and 2 Hispanos at the subcabinet level. There is only 1 Hispana Dean of a College and only 3 Hispano Department Heads, all of whom were selected in the last 6 months. Only 92 of the over 1,900 faculty members at UNM are Hispanos when in 1988, we had 94 Hispano professors and a number of Deans and Deparment Heads. 2/3 of the Hispano faculty are senior faculty who are nearing retirement age and only 1/3 of the Hispano faculty are junior faculty in the pipeline to replace the Hispano faculty. Many departments and staff divisions have no Hispanos at all.
We have not had a New Mexican Hispano Congressman since Manuel Luján left in 1989 and we have not had a New Mexican Hispano U.S. Senator since since José M. Montoya in 1977, 24 years. This has caused a lack of represenation of Hispano issues and protection against discrimination against New Mexican Hispanos in federal, state and many local institutions. Thus, we have the discrimination at Kirtland Air Force Base which has affected so many Hispanos and which led to the death of an Hispana who was grossly abused because she blew the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse at Kirtland Air Force Base. Our lack of representation has led to gross under representation of and discrimination against New Mexico's native Indohispanos in our own public institutions in our own ancestral homelands where we have lived for over 400 years from our Spanish, Mestizo and Mexican Indian ancestors and tens of thousands of years from our pueblo and nomadic Indian ancestors of New Mexico. Anglos have absolutely no qualms about gerrymandering districts which give them huge majorities, but they are quick to cry "race" when Hispanos demand parity and equality to be represented equal to our numbers and percentages so we can defend our own interests and our own people and choose our own leaders instead of having colonial administators, tokens and quislings imposed upon us, like the British Empire did in India. It would take a book, or perhaps many books, to list the legion of cases of discrimination which have been visited upon New Mexico's Indiohispanos since the invasion of 1846 because of our lack of political and institutional representation, and they are in the process of being written. In the meantime, we are going to demand, struggle for and work tirelessly and ceaselessly to obtain parity of representation in politics and all of our public institutions for our people by Hispanos who will work to bring parity and equality to our people, not vendidos. We ask for no more, and we will accept no less.
Juan José Peña is a native New Mexican who is descended from Juan de la Peña, a soldier in the Army of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Baltazar Francisco de la Peña who settled in New Mexico in 1693 as a soldier in Santa Fé. He was raised in Las Vegas, New Mexico where his great grandfather, José Domingo de la Peña, a comanchero, cibolero and carretero settled with his wife Monica Gallegos, a Comanche woman, and recieved a BA from Highlands University in Spanish; History, Political Science and Economics and German; an M.A. Degree in Spanish and History, Political Science and Economics and has completed all coursework for a Ph.D. in Spanish and Latin American Language and Literature and in Portuguese at the University of New Mexico. He has taught Spanish, Chicano Studies and Bilingual Education at Highlands University. He was a member of the Alianza Federal de Mercedes since 1964; County, State and National President of the Partido de la Raza Unida, from 1972 until 1981; and he has been President of the Board of Trustees of Northern New Mexico Legal Services from 1973 until 1981; President of the New Mexico Association of Chicano Studies; State Commander, American GI Forum of New Mexico; Commander, American GI Forum of Alburquerque; Chairman, Hispano Round Table of New Mexico; President, Barelas Neighborhood Association; Vice President, Barelas Community Development Corporation, etc. He has been profiled in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the West and Who's Who in American Politics
