Park Controversy as Cover-Up!

The controversial “renaming project” of Kit Carson Park raises hackles, causes voices to rise, and creates opportunities for rampant displays of ignorance and random acts of kindness. Full disclosure: this writer grew up in Carson Valley, Nevada, named for the famous scout, who accompanied and guided the various Fremont expeditions out west. The name “Taos” seemed magical in the history books. When I finally visited in 1965, the climate, geography, and culture of Taos exceeded anything I’d ever imagined.

During the Horse Fly years (1999-2009) I began reading and reviewing books about the place and people. A number of well written books, both fiction and nonfiction, confirm the travails of experience. Experience and education go well together. A scholar or writer frequently helps the amateur articulate and understand experience as well as his or her own intuitive responses to the complexities of community.

(David Stuart, Hampton Sides, Frank Waters, John Nichols, R.C. McCutcheon, George Sanchez, Suzanne Forrest, Lois Rudnick, Sylvia Rodriguez, Richard Trujillo, and the signatories to the Abeya/Taos Pueblo Water Settlement are just some of my favorite authors.)

Anyway, the “naming controversy” surrounding the Kit Cason Park is a great diversion from our individual and collective socio-economic problems. On June 24th, the Town of Taos Council will take up the issue of “renaming” the park (again). As Mayor Barrone told the Taos News (June 19, 2014) “suggestions the town acted on the name change before it fully educated itself `could be a fair criticism.’”

Anthropologist Sylvia Rodriquez told The Taos News, “I don’t really hate Kit Carson. The issue is `What is history and who writes it?’ This opens it up to say there is no single voice.”

Taosenos, my age, were raised on television and movie stereotypes of both Indian (now Native American) and Mexican (now Hispanic) imagery. Many of my friends in Taos experienced discrimination while visiting the southeastern communities of New Mexico or communities north of the border regions in Colorado.

During the sixties and seventies university curriculums changed from conventional presentations of WASP history (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) to more inclusive visions of American minority groups. Political correctness, a form of censorship, prompted by multiculturalism, followed and reached a kind of fever pitch during the 80s and 90s, which resulted in its own conversion of individuals into stereotypes, including the kind of language we’re hearing now to describe Kit Carson. Scholarship, however, continues to improve and provide insights.

The minority Hispanic culture has always been in the majority during my years in Taos. You might say the residents of Taos Pueblo are separate but equal. The Anglos intervene in the community but at their own risk. I don’t see institutionalized racism as a problem though bigotry among neighbors (Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo), whether prompted by proximity and politics or class and economics is certainly a continuing syndrome.

But there’s way too much chaos and shifting loyalties for there to be a dominant racial ethic. Nobody’s in control of the social, political, and economic levers except temporarily. For sure there is a lack of social justice in Taos.

The patriarchal theocracy at Taos Pueblo discriminates against the rights of children, women, and residents who don’t or can’t conform to tribal customs due as much to individual disposition as an accident of birth. In the Hispanic community both the public schools and so-called justice system discriminate most against Hispanic sons and daughters. The systemic problem can be seen in the demographics at prisons and jails.

A Marxist material paradigm that interprets the dominant American culture as the problem in Taos ignores the social consequences of dysfunctional politics. I have observed many courageous Taos Pueblo and Taos Hispanic activists confront local government, including the school system, to no avail. Anglos who get involved in the “system” frequently go “native” in order to conform or get elected to office.

So, while poverty and a lack of education are a problem, our problems in the community are our own. There is a lack of political will and paucity of leadership when it comes to social justice. Renaming the Kit Carson Park can divert our attention but the controversy merely serves as cover for the real tragedy: the faces in the mirror, who refuse to take responsibility for raising children and guiding adults.

Just as the Bush and Obama administrations divert attention from economic justice by fighting foreign wars against terrorists, so Taosenos re-ignite historic and family feuds while ignoring the issues of social justice. I am as guilty as the politicians. It’s time to take time off from El Mitote, which is as addictive as alcohol or marijuana.