Response to Orlando Romero 2

8/14/2019 Response to Orlando Romero 2

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RACISM EMBEDDED

INORLANDO ROMERO

s REPRESENTATIONBy Paul Henrickson,

Ph.D. 2008This response to some

of the comments of

Orlando Romero may,when all is said and


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done, require a rather

special introduction.Orlando and I know

each other. It cannot besaid that we know each

other well, but it would

not be true to allowanyone to believe the

relationship was casual.


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My feeling about our

relationship is that ithad the opportunity to

be personallymeaningful to both of

us had our respective

cultures allowed for it.My culture which

cannot be said is purelyfrom any one locality,


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and certainly not from a

limited mind set,Orlandos personal

culture, on the otherhand, appears to be

solidly entrenched in

the Northern NewMexican Hispanic

orientation.


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http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.charleslummis.com/penitente.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.charleslummis.com/penitente.htm&h=622&w=1000&sz=148&hl=en&start=8&usg=__DOslsysahqYa7KO9GnpjDN6gl0o=&tbnid=cqzFUYKA0__ngM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=149&prev=/images?q=new+mexico+penitentes&gbv=2&hl=en&sa=G


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Photo dating from 1888


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Penitente group

Penitente morada NewMexico


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Good Friday celebration at

Rancho de Taos, New Mexico, photo by Anne Lorraine

Erickson-Schille


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be some elaboration to

explain some of thecustoms still prevalent

among them such as thelighting of candles on

Friday evening, Old

Testament first namesand circumcision as

well as an intenseexclusivity which


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requires a daily battle

for its maintenance,facing, as it does, the

intense need fordissemblance in a

society politically and

economicallydominated by Anglos

The Hispanic has had tooccultly manipulate


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these circumstances,

most often to theeconomic disadvantage

of non-Hispanics, inorder to maintain a

semblance of those

customs brought withthem a half millennium

ago.


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While there may be

other justifiableexplanations for these

customs I have notheard any offered.

but nonetheless Spanish

in their Catholicism,language (still a 16th-

century Castilian dialectto some degree), and


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culture. They worked

their primitive farms inisolation, generally

undisturbed by the"Westward Ho" Anglos

who bypassed the

unpromising wastes ofNew Mexico. Though

to outsiders they areindistinguishable from


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Mexicans, these New

Mexicans think ofthemselves as Hispanos,

direct descendants ofSpain. [Comments byDavid Wallechinsky & Irving

Wallace are, in outline,conventionally correct, ]

Romantically one cansee a great deal of


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literary and filmic

potential in thatdescription, but the only

two films of myacquaintance which

touch upon that special

characteristic whichgives definition to this

groups character areThe Penitentes with


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Raul Julia and the film

made of RichardBradfords novel

Red Sky at


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Morning.

Both of these films

touch very sensitivelyon two of those
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distinctive

characteristics. One ofthese being the

love/hate relationshipthat exists and is rooted

in the response system

of the Hispanic towardanything not itself, and

the near psychoticsocio-religious


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patterning in the arena

of deicide., and addingto this, the undoubtedly

traumatic andschizophrenic effect of

having been forced by

the Spanish Inquisition,to deny ones God and

learn, somehow orother, to hate what you


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are. I am sympathetic

with their dilemma, butnot with their use of it

to punish all others forbeing who they are.

In this regard it should

be remembered that the

Jewish victims of theSpanish Inquisition


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were officially and

legally identified withintwo days of Columbuss

departure. It is, largely,for this reason that it is

supposed that the

majority of Columbusscrew were Jews

escaping the inquisition.


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The Jewish, and also

the Muslim, populationswere often forced to

convert to Christianity,hence the term

Converso as it is

generally applied toJewish convertsbut

also to Muslims. They werein fear of losing either,


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or both, their lives and

their fortunes. Thisinstitutionalized

Inquisition alsoaccounts, I understand,

for the retreat of about

15,000 Jews to MuslimTurkey encouraged by

the policies of the thenSultan.


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SultanBayezid II

sentKemal

ReisTOsave the ArabsandSephardic Jews

ofSpain

fromthe Spanish Inquisitionin

1492, and granted them

permission to settle inthe Ottoman Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpg


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Whatever their reasons,

Isabella of Castile andFerdinand of Aragon at

some point, gave awayto some of these

survivors great tracts of

land, which was nottheir property but

belonged to the variousAmerican Indian tribes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayezid_IIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardic_Jewshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:G?ke_(1495)_the_flagship_of_Kemal_Reis.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayezid_IIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayezid_IIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayezid_IIhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Reishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardic_Jewshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardic_Jewshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardic_Jewshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empirehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire


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they had subdued,

however, the presentday Hispanic heir of

those land grants is veryattached to the idea of

that land and wants it

back. Perhaps thinkingthat, for them, it was

Canaan, or a form ofit. And, in point of fact,


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it is not unlike the area,

and also in point of factsome of the behaviors

attributed to theCanaanites are today

still identifiable in the

present day Hispanicinhabitants of Northern

New Mexico as is theirgeneral attitude toward


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their Indian neighbors

similar to that held bythe Jews of the exodus

in their treatment of theCanaanite army whom

they talked into being

circumcised (inexchange for wealth

and women) and thendays later when the


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operation is at its most

painful and the patientunable to move was

murdered. Although ashrewd move, it seems

hardly consistent with

other morecompassionate biblical

instructions, except forthe one provisional


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suggestion that

consideration is forones own, anyone else

is fair game.

However, in the past

century and a half,

those land grants were

sold, but that makes nodifference they still


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want them back, hence

the insistent policy toredefine the Treaty of

Guadalupe Hidalgo(1843) supported , to

my knowledge, by three

influential Jews, Rabbi.Hellman of Synagogue

Beth Shalom, StanEudis, and the one time,


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possibly still, Priest

associated with SanYsidro in Agua Fria a

barrio in south-westSanta Fe. In the

meantime the American

Indian whose landsthese were in the

beginning is politicallysilent on the topic. And


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the Anglo who, over

that period of time,have bought, sold and

bought again theselands is confused about

the logic of the issue.

Somehow, I have grown

accustomed to abatingmy emotion when it is


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in conflict with reason,

but others may not havebeen able, nor wished to

do so, and this, I think,may be part of the

problem.

In any event I think all

this background hassomething to do with


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Orlandos evident

surprise that I was stillliving in the valley

when, by chance, weencountered each other

in the Pojoaque post

office. Are you still inthe valley? he asked

me and I responded Isthere a reason I


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shouldnt be? Since

then hes never said aword to me. It is true I

left for Europe soonafter that and that

leaving certainly did

have something to dowith the nature of the

New Mexican Hispanicwho still believes in and


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practices a sort of

native magic. I wouldjudge, and did so, that

from his Post Officecomment he was,

somehow, surprised that

after 3 dog killings,acequia flooding of my

house, civil rudeness,Jemez Mountain


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Electric Cooperative

abuses and the courtcase heard by Judge

Petra Maes where-inmy lawyer, Michael

Righter, later disbarred,

had been suborned bythe lawyer for the

defendants, also namedMaes, which was


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supposed to indicate

that I was not welcomein the valley.and the

only thing they hadagainst me was that I

was not one of them.

I believe this

experience mayexplain that one of the


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provisions in the

Treaty of GuadalupeHildago of 1843 was

the provision thatmigrants from the

East would be

welcome into the thenterritory. When I first

read this provision Ithought it a strange


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one for a treaty, but I

now think Iunderstand it. It is so

much a part of theNorthern New

Mexico character not

to welcome strangers(cf. Patricia Madrids

advice to a Hispanicaudience in Las


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Vegas while she was

running for the officeof Lieutenant

Governorto inhibitthe migration of

Anglos into the

territory,


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(photo of Patricia Madrid), or

that of DeborahJaramillo, while

Mayor of Santa Fe,telling a California

reporter that it was

merely a matter timebefore Anglo houses

would be burned) thatthe writers of the


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treaty felt it a

requirement toinclude it. I also

understand very wellnow, after the fact,

what Jacques Cartier

had in mind when in1957 he told me that

if I thought I wantedto move into the


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valley I should

understand that thepeople there were

terrible. I had notasked for more

information, nor did

he volunteeradditional

information.


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Cartier,Actor-dancer as one of

the historical characters

in his repertoire ofportraits


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These occurred yearsbefore all these later

developments when Ihad mentioned to

Orlando that visitors

who came to see meoften told me that they

felt the presence of a


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female spirit following

them around the garden.

These were Anglo folkand usually not given to

such things, but

Orlando took my

comment to heart and

volunteered to rid theplace of any spirits. I


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felt it unwise to refuse

such an offer and Iwatched patiently with

an open mind as heburned something and

advised me to put the

ashes in a container andto sleep with it beneath

my pillow. Well, I put it


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into a container and laid

it on the shelf.


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have been several

people who were evilwhom I liked so I

suppose, I am no greatjudge of character, or, I

am impressed by the

offbeat, or , as oneWelsh astrologer told

me my chart tells him I


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would be a great leader

for the criminal class.

On the surface Orlandoshows none of those,

otherwise disagreeable,

characteristics, but,

after awhile one begins

to sense a quite nearlysubconscious focus on


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an age-old hurt for

which, it is felt thatsomeone feels there

must be retribution, andwhile the original

participants are no

longer around it will besufficient to use a

surrogate who simply isof the type, that is


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guerro. The term

anglo is used to referto anyone, regardless of

color, not NorthernNew Mexican Hispanic.

In order to bring this

about it is sometimesnecessary to appear to

be other than what youare and subterfuge


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abounds.

HELGIHUNDINGSLAYER

HAUGHEM shot byDavid Duran


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and when confronted

with his guilt accusesme of arrogance as a

reason for murdering anexcellent animal.

It is in that connection

that the report below

fascinated metremendously and could


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shed some interesting

light on the nature of allfolk enclaves.

The questionnaire sent

from the national FWP

offices reflected the

dominant version of

folklore, directing theFWP field writers


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questions to the subject

of Indian legends,geographic features,

superstitions, festivals,tall tales, and jokes and

anecdotes passed

around by the campfire (Robelledo.

Introduction xxiii-xxiv),


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In the questionnaire,

New Mexico naturaland cultural wonders

are imagined to exist ina mythic realm outside

history. But this

abstraction of culturefrom history is itself a

historically specific act,as A. Gabriel Melendez


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describes it, the

fetishing offolknessthatbegan in the

1930s__served politicaland ideological ends.

For the vision of New

Mexico as an enclave offolk was also a way to

erase the greater part ofthe Neo-Mexicano


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social and historical

agency.

This statement rathershocked me as it

seemed to be unusually

forthright and

surprisingly right on,

if one could imagine asub-cultural society so


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intent upon appearing,

or to be seen as, whatthey were not that

ultimately believingthat a grafted-on fantasy

was possible and that

consequently a fact, ofsorts, would follow this

act of imagination.There might be a


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precedent in this

cultural transmutation ifwhat some claim

regarding theconversion of non-

ethnic Jewish Khazars

in the 9th centuryaccounts, today, for

their comprising 90% ofthe inhabitants of Israel


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is true.

There is a question

hovering about thesematters which has

rarely been asked and

that seems to be: just

what are the differences

between the SephardicJew, which presumably


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is the New Mexican

Jew and the EasternEuropean Jew, assumed

by some to be rulingWashington D.C. and

known, by some, as

Ashkenazi?When in a letter to the

editor of the Santa FeNewMexican


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commenting on Mel

Gibsons unfortunateencounter with a Jewish

California policeman Imade a one sentence

(20 words perhaps)

suggesting that sinceGibson enjoyed

researching for his filmshe might research that


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Khazar- Jewish

relationship. After a oneday appearance of the

letter that sentence waspurged and I

condemned to a four

day period ofpenitential silence.

When I asked MichaelOdza who had


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complained about that

one sentence I did notreceive a reply. Perhaps

my neighbors across theNambe valley will

provide the answer. Ms.

McKinney owns thenewspaper, but who

owns her?


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This statement also

seems to suggest that inthe process of

consideration andreconsideration of

commentary on the

values andcharacteristics of the

New Mexico Hispanicthat extant and


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functioning social

environments may bepartially obscured in

both the writing and thereading.

It is the phrase to erase

the greater part of the

Neo-Mexicano socialand historical agency


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that suggests that

someone has attemptedto remold a whole set of

cultural behaviors, andperhaps, thereby to

better integrate them, or

not, into a different andless restrictive cultural

context. If so, itcertainly was an


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interesting experiment,

but from my experienceit has not worked, but

has laid the groundworkfor a disturbing social

development waiting in

the wings.


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of Alice, of Alice in

Wonderland from being a

or like re-establishing the

reality of Santa


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now, to have been formulated

with the intent of graftingon to the present group

consciousness a different

and more acceptable one

which, in turn, might be

more amenable to

adaptation. Certainly an

ambitious program insocial psychology if this is

the way it was. This

example, if this is what it iscertainly does not

forebode much success


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for the present and even

more grandiose plan ofglobalization.

These considerations tendto make of the Northern

new Mexico the subject ofa mystery not unlike thatof the Khazars who, somebelieve, have been able tohoax the entire world intobelieving that they are thetrue (ethnic) Jews and,

having done so, nowconstitute 90% of thepopulation of Israel. If


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Adolf Hitler had realizedthis one wonders how hemight have accommodatedthis intellectual conflict. Hemurdered people who were

not the ones he thoughtthey were.


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As for Orlandos work as asantero there is nothing Iam able to say as, Ibelieve, I have never seenany that he may have

done. However, I will saythis that the few I haveseen over several decadeshave impressed me with

their sameness. Now, in artwork that becomes culticand, consequently, subjectto applied formulae of

production this is almostan inevitability. Becauseof this it is possible for us,


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in fact, it is quite nearlyunavoidable that thissameness becomes knownas The school ofandthen add the name of

whatever place it happensto be, e., The school ofFirenze and such anattribution would probably

indicate to the student 1)that we do not know thename of the person whoexecuted the work and are

incapable of telling onework from another or whodid what of among them.


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Art criticism, in its usualsense, has no place tofunction in the field ofsantos production.

In the case of the functionof santero in New Mexico itappears to bear a

relationship to thepopulation not unlike thatof a religious intercessor.In fact, the production ofsantos in New Mexicoseems to bear some


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relationship to othercultures household godsand those who make themare revered as specialbeings whether their craft

is remarkable or not. Therepeated replication oftraditional handcrafts insubject matter and in

unevolved techniqueseems to bear somerelationship tosympathetic magic.

One santero tried to explain:"We want only to say that Jesuswas a man who suffered deeply


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and gave-up His life. The prettycrucifixes in some of thechurches do not grab the eye.They do not melt the heart."

I find this expression

of aesthetic intentmore than acceptable;in fact, I would statethat such an intent isprobably a necessity ifthe product of creativeactivity is to do itsintended job. The


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objectification of

aesthetic intent into anobject thatpossessesthe required

organization ofelements that cantransmit meaning is

only one part of theequation whichrepresents the objectas meaning. The otherpart of the equation is


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represented by the

observer whose visualvocabulary must besufficient to extract

the meaning from theobject. And then, ofcourse, we cant be

sure that the meaningas received is the sameas what was intended.In point of fact thatentire process can


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most adequately

described as a processof approximations.Part of that problem,

of course, hinges onthe adequacy orinadequacy of our

vocabulariesbothverbal and visualvocabularies.

This vocabulary is, Ibelieve, built up


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through a process of

observationalexperience and criticalevaluation and finally

coalesced within theculture as sharedcommunal visual

tools.


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I agree with Orlando

on the salad bowlmetaphor when he

states We are like a salad


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bowl ... you can't enjoy salad

with only lettuce unless

you're a rabbit. What areneeded are tomatoes, onions

and assorted veggies,"

Romero said.

And as in any good salad,the different flavors aredistinctive and

interesting, for the tastebuds at least. However,

the implication is that theHispanic population may

be indiscriminate as towhom it relates tosexually. I do not think


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that, on the whole, such

a statement wouldcorrectly profile the

population. Anglos wheninvited guests at Hispanic

homes for a socialcelebration or in a church

for a social event such as

a wedding or a funeralmass are nearlyinevitably confronted by

racial insults, or in other

ways allowed tounderstand that they are


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unwelcome outsiders. In

fact, it has so much beenthe customary Hispanic

response to Anglos thatthey do not know how to

behave, at ease, whenthey are guests in an

Anglo home, Deborah

Jaramillo, the mayor ofSanta Fe, is one suchexample. I know that for

a contemporary white

audience to read that thewhite man is often


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racially insulted in public

may come as a bit of asurprise, but it is

absolutely true, verycontrary to the prevailing

myth that racism stemsonly from the white man

to others.

When the fantasy generates

an aggressive attitude

towards other groups and is

used to deprive them of their

rights, property and


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freedoms it then becomes a

matter of inappropriate socialbehavior in a multiethnic

community. In short, one

groups fantasies has no

right to impinge upon

another groups real (in the

sense of legal) rights. And in

New Mexico they do and thepolitical propaganda of the

fantasist has already been

brought to the floor of theUnited States Senate by

New Mexico politicians Pete


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V. Domenici and Jeff

Bingaman in the form of aBill designed to investigate

whether, or not, the Treaty of

Guadalupe Hidalgo has been

breached. Well, most Anglos

living in the area know that it

has for one of its more

startling provisions was thespecific requirement that the

Hispanic residents who

chose not to return to Mexicowould greet in a friendly

fashion those venturing into


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the territory from the East.

Even after more than acentury and a half they have

failed to do so and even as

talented a diplomat as

Concha Ortiz y Pino de

Kleven failed to know how to

reconcile these deep

differences.


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differences.


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When facts and beliefs comeinto conflict on the political

scene it might be expected

that irrational events might

take place, as when witches

were burned in Salem and a

Roman Emperor appoints his

horse to the Senatealthough this last example

may have been a late

Roman example of aconceptual work of art not

unlike places a figure of


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Christ submerged in a jar of

urine.

Although numerous, irritating

and barbaric as some of my

personal experiences with

some Hispanic in new

Mexico have been the pale

in the face of the published

misconduct of elected

officials such as District

Attorney Patricia Madrid,Mayor Deborah Jaramillo,


164/168

Judge Jose Cruz

Castaillano, LandCommissioner Alex Armijo,

Supreme Court Justice Petra

Maes and not a few others.

Were I to be the governor of

a conquered nation I would

think more than twice about

allowing any of their numberbeing placed in positions of

authority in local and

regional civil position overthose who did the

conquering. In the case of


165/168

the Northern New Mexican

Hispanic it is an openinvitation to punish the

innocent symbol of your so-

called subjection. Conquered

they were, subjected they

were not.

When State Commissioner

for public lands Alex Armijo

tried to take over a section of

my property in Santa Fe toallow access to a remote


166/168

section of his property so

that his then 16 year-old sonmight have his own entrance

to the property (at my

expense) and announced

this intention on official state

stationary I simply made

copies of the letter and sent

them to every departmenthead in the state. It had its

effect.


167/168

Perhaps the most classic

example of the sardonicallyamazing behavior of the

Hispanic when in office is

part of the public biography

of Jose Cruz Castaillano

whom I first knew as a

District Attorney and who

later became a District Judgefrom which position the other

District Judges, evicted him

for his pilfering of theircommunity savings account.

Within a month after this loss


168/168

of prestige he was arrested

at a grocery store for havinglifted three packages of

cigarettes about which he

explained he needed to

feed his family. From this

several wondered what

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Response to Orlando Romero 2

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