Taos: Water, Land, and the Culture of Self-Determination

On Thursday, Feb. 27, campaign ads in The Taos News as well as campaign ads on radio really spelled out the issues in the Town of Taos mayoral and council race. Nothing less than a shift in local culture is at risk. The customs of El Norte are being challenged and demeaned.

Let’s look at yesterday’s ads in The Taos News. Mayor Cordova’s team paid for ads that show Governor Susanna Martinez and Mayor Berry of Albuquerque, two Republicans, endorsing the incumbent mayor. Further, Mayor Coss, the alleged “progressive” mayor of Santa Fe, has endorsed Mayor Cordova—despite the latter’s record of opaque government and public misdeeds re: contracts for cuates i.e. privatizing the public purse.

Gov. Martinez herself lost Taos big time in her gubernatorial election. Her “oil and gas” and “Tejano” values are at odds with about 85% of Taosenos. Recently, she kicked Taoseno Trudy Healy off the Water Trust Board after ten years of service. The governor does not want a Healy who questions plans or projects that serve “oil and gas” or exporting water to Texas or projects that serve supporters by undermining holistic water management in the State of New Mexico. Gov. Martinez endorsed Mayor Cordova.

Healy saw to the fair and equitable distribution of water projects throughout the state and certainly Taos, El Prado, and the Town of Taos benefitted from her representation. In fact she was honored by the Senate and, in the process, during the legislative session in “Memorial” by both houses. Senators and Representatives changed the policy of SB112 to give the legislature and the state of New Mexico exclusive influence in appointing public members, due to the Healy dismissal. Healy lobbied the Senate to investigate all the conflicts of interest served by Martinez cabinet secretaries, including the state engineer. So when Mayor Cordova appears in an ad with Martinez, Coss, and Berry, one must think about the water issues: the downstream municipalities and the frackers from Texas who are coming for our water.

Meanwhile Coss has defended LANL’s public relations team aimed at covering up historic pollution as well as the manufacture of plutonium triggers or whatever crimes against humanity the bomb builders are engaged in today. You might say Cordova is part of the team that covers up the LANL doings.

Mayor Cordova and his legal team have stonewalled a local acequia’s lawsuit against the Town for impairment, the cause of which can be traced to ill-gotten development and real estate deals. Real estate seems to be the over-riding concern of the Mayor: listen to the radio ads, see The Taos News endorsements, see the Mayor’s running mates, realtors Lukes and Abeyta. What could be plainer?

At a recent “historic preservation commission” meeting, two out of three members present were “realtors.” The supplicants were Taoseno mayordomos and parciantes, seeking to reclaim their culture from outsiders. It was, to say the least, an insult to the community.

The Mayor and Taos News brag about their opposition to local “land grant” gurus. Sure, these “land grants” in question, might be mostly lost. One can argue that even the Forest Service and BLM have served to save open space for the local culture: see the Monument. But, naked aggression against historic beliefs goes against local custom.

Taosenos honor the past, history and culture, even as we acknowledge the changes. A politician doesn’t shove his vision of society and callous insensitivity to history down the throat of native Taosenos who believe in “custom” and “tradition.”

Rather a leader shows some respect, just as we all do for Taos Pueblo, regardless of science or theories of anthropology, the contradictions of tradition, etc. In Taos we choose the century we want to live in but that’s part of the charm, part of the frustration, and a part of the culture with which Mayor Cordova seems unfamiliar.

When asked about land grants, Candidate Barrone said, “it would work itself out.” Like all things in Taos, they work themselves out. Here’s a minor point of history.

When Reies Tijerina took over the Tierra Amarilla courthouse during the famed land grant crisis of 1967, shot up the place and kidnapped a couple of folks, the Taos National Guard got called up. Given the lack of information and rumors, there could have been a massacre. But Taosenos ignored military mandates to shoot on sight and let los viejos, sheepherders, la gente go about their business, per the prevailing custom of benign neglect and tolerance for history and difference. There was no massacre like Kent State. I’ve always been impressed by the wisdom of the common Taoseno.

Though they were blamed for it, the land grant crisis was not caused by the Ortiz brothers in Arroyo Hondo or the activists from La Serna but by the over-reaction of banks, title companies, and realtors. The banks and title companies used the crisis as an excuse to avoid financing real estate sales due to federal clamp downs and aberrant title practices, wherein they turned property titles into derivatives, etc. Nothing changed before or after the “alleged crisis” except how seriously one must take issues of history and culture. Indeed, the crisis was “manufactured.”

And we all know that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo still prevails, culturally, if not in fact. History haunts the present. Taosenos are used to it, newcomers learn the lesson. Mayor Cordova ignores it at his peril.

Perhaps the most obvious and egregious attack by Mayor Cordova on the local community can be seen in the incessant and petty use of force by his parking police i.e. meter maids. In the middle of an election campaign, when the historic downtown suffers from an economic downturn i.e. vacant storefronts and vacant parking places, he has raised parking fees and parking fines. He has sent out the blue meanies to ticket Taosenos, working in shops, those who can least afford it.

The Mayor’s policies and endorsements confirm his hostility toward the community at large as well as the native Hispanic culture. I hear he’s against hunting, too. In El Prado, they have a name for Pobrecito Darren but I can’t say it in a cross-cultural commentary with gentle readers. We need to take back the Town before the Mayor sells it to Martinez, Coss, and Berry.