Cuartocentenario

Published with permission from the Santa Fe New Mexican

Banners, Statues Greet Spanish Dignitaries

By Monica Soto – April 28, 1998

Santa Fe laid out the red carpet for Spanish dignitaries on Monday, with ceremonies befitting a monarchy.

Francisco Alvarez-Cascos, vice president of Spain, who is visiting New Mexico this week along with other Spanish officials, attended several cuartocentenario events here, including a banner presentation ceremony on the Plaza, a Te Deum, or special service, at St. Francis Cathedral with Archbishop Michael Sheehan and the unveiling of an Oñate statue at the United States Army National Guard Armory on N.M. 14 south of Santa Fe.

The cuartocentenario celebrates the arrival of Don Juan de Oñate, who in 1598 established the first permanent Spanish settlement in the United States at San Juan de los Caballeros or Ohkay Owingeh, Place of the Strong people.

At the banner presentation ceremony on Monday morning, Alvarez-Cascos expressed his “deepest appreciation to those courageous Spaniards, as well as to the fruitful encounter between the cultures that they initiated and carried out.”

His speech on Monday carried a different tone than the day before, when Alvarez-Cascos and other Spanish officials met with 16 tribal leaders at San Juan Pueblo to acknowledge the pain and suffering Oñate’s settlement had caused them and to forge diplomatic relations.

Several hundred people lined the Plaza Monday morning to watch the ceremony in which Spain gave New Mexico a replica of the banner used during Oñate’s expedition. One one side of the flag bears the Virgin of Remedies, under whose protection Oñate guided his men. On the other side is the coat of arms for King Phillip II, who was the ruler of Spain during Oñate’s journey.

The Spanish military’s Special Operations Group II donned period dress to reenact the entrada of Oñate and his men atop horses flanked by a fife and drum corp.

After the banner was passed to Gov. Gary Johnson, who then passed the flag to the Caballeros DeVargas group, the procession crept slowly up East San Francisco Street to the Cathedral.

People watched from the steps of the church as New Mexico Army National Guardsmen and the Spanish soldiers marched side by side, followed by Alvarez-Cascos and Johnson, with other Spanish and New Mexico government officials in tow.

A Caballeros DeVargas member knocked four times on the thick, wooden double doors of the church and with marked effect, the doors opened slowly and Archbishop Michael Sheehan and Vicar General Rev. Leo Lucero emerged.

To a packed audience, Antonio de Oyarzábal, ambassador of Spain to the United States, read Colossians 3:12-17 in Spanish with an English translation by Mayor Larry Delgado. The Spanish delegation also enshrined Nuestra Señora de la Paz, a madonna brought to the area in the 1600s and also known as La Conquistadora, in the Marion Chapel, where they also laid a wreath.

Maria Martinez, 65, whose husband Damian, 64, is a member of Caballeros DeVargas, said that to recognize the 400th anniversary is to give credence to her heritage “as a Catholic and as a Spanish person.”

“There have been so many (issues) between Spanish and Indians,” said Martinez, who attended the church service. “I hope this will bring them together.” At a later ceremony, a statue of Oñate was unveiled at the New Mexico Army National Guard Armory, commemorating him as founder of the militia concept in New Mexico.

Because only 129 of the 500 people who traveled with Oñate were considered soldiers, he recruited farmers and other Spanish settlers to bear arms along El Camino Real, said Maj. Gen. Melvyn S. Montaño.

One of Oñate’s direct descendants, Manuel Gullón de Oñate, unveiled the statue, a seven-foot bronze replica of the Spanish soldier holding a banner with one hand and pointing north with the other.

Bataan Death March survivor Ralph Rodriguez Jr., 80, who studied Oñate as an elementary school student, viewed the statue and gave his nod of approval.

Honoring the Spanish conquistador, he said, was more than just a good idea: “It’s absolutely necessary.”