Fiestas de Santa Fe

History

Fiestas de Santa Fe has been held since 1712 to celebrate the Reconquest of the city in 1692 by Spanish colonists led by General Don Diego de Vargas (1643–1704). It claims to be the oldest civic celebration of its kind in North America. The Spanish were earlier expelled from the city by neighboring Pueblo people during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and spent the next 12 years in exile in El Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juárez, Mexico). The King of Spain appointed de Vargas to lead the exiled colonists in their reoccupation of Santa Fe by surrounding the city with cannons and threatening the Pueblo Indians residing inside with death. He re-entered the city on September 14, 1692; however the war for reoccupation of New Mexico raged on until 1694. Eight years after de Vargas' death, a proclamation was signed to establish an annual commemoration of the resettlement.[1]

Fiesta was revamped in 1912 by a group led by the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce and Edgar Lee Hewett. Hewett re-envisioned the Fiesta as a celebration of the history of New Mexico from prehistoric times to the annexation by the United States and rooted in the culture of the Indians, Hispanos and Anglos. In protest to Hewett's charging of admission to the Fiesta, a group of artists and writers decide to stage their own admission-free Fiesta called "El Pasatiempo" in 1926. "El Pasatiempo" featured a Hysterical Pageant, a parody of the Fiesta historical pageant, and the burning of Zozobra, both of which later became part of the Fiesta celebration.

Festival highlights

The start of Fiestas is marked by the beginning of the Novena masses, which start during the Knighting and Coronation of Don Diego de Vargas and La Reina de Santa Fe in which a procession which takes La Conquistadora from the Cathedral Basilica to the Rosario Chapel, at Rosario Cemetery in Santa Fe. From there 9 masses are held throughout the week and at the end of the week La Conquistadora is returned from Rosario Chapel to the Cathedral Basilica that following weekend. Those masses are carried out and are made as a tribute to the promise that Don Diego de Vargas made to La Conquistadora, and is carried through until September which includes the burning of Zozobra, also known as "Old Man Gloom", a 50 ft/15.2m tall marionette that symbolizes the hardships and despair of the past year. This is followed by 3 days of celebration that includes a reenactment of Don Diego de Vargas's return to the city, a children's pet parade, the Historical/Hysterical Parade, the Fiesta Ball and Roman Catholic masses of thanksgiving. During the festival, the Santa Fe Plaza is filled with arts & crafts and food booths, and mariachis play throughout the city. Fiestas concludes with mass at the St. Francis Cathedral followed by a candlelight procession to the Cross of the Martyrs.

Controversy

The Fiesta has been criticized multiple times over the years, particularly for its portrayal of Pueblo Indians and glorification of their defeat at the hands of the Spanish. In 1977 the All Indian Pueblo Council and the state's Eight Northern Pueblos staged a boycott when a former Fiesta Council President sent a letter to the Pueblos requesting they not sell their wares during Fiesta. The Fiesta Council has responded to these criticisms by emphasizing peaceful co-existence of the indigenous and Hispanic communities and their shared Catholic faith.

Others have disputed the Fiesta claim that the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico was "bloodless." During the 1990 Fiesta, historian John Kessel told the Fiesta Court that bloodshed did occur in 1693 when de Vargas and an expedition of colonists returned to Santa Fe.