Via the Santa Fe New Mexican:
Last-minute Fiesta school battle? So unnecessary
Visits of the Fiesta Court to Santa Fe Public Schools are a way to share culture and tradition with the district’s youngsters, also instilling a sense of pride in Hispanic students whose ancestors participated in the first commemorations.
Or, they are an unfortunate celebration of colonization — recalling the defeat of local Pueblo Indians and a painful reminder for Indigenous students and families, whether from local tribes or elsewhere.
Regardless of your perspective, less than two weeks before the 2023 Santa Fe Fiesta is the wrong time to change plans involving Fiesta Court visits to public schools. But with a spectacularly tone-deaf sense of timing, that’s precisely what the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education is mulling.
A resolution up for consideration, first placed on the agenda Thursday and now moved to what likely will be a doozy of a special meeting on Monday, states that any Fiesta Court programming would be forbidden from the schools during instructional or after-school hours.
Currently, the district allows visits from the Fiesta Court for fourth, seventh and ninth grades — years when New Mexico history is part of the school curriculum. The visits aren’t supposed to be just song and dance, but also discussions of how the Spanish and Indigenous people interacted and learned from one another.
Done right, these visits aren’t just fun. They enrich what students are learning. History comes alive for students.
The structure of contemporary visits — the Fiesta Court has been coming to public schools for decades — changed in 2018, limiting them to grades that study New Mexico history. The new resolution apparently resulted after months of discussion failed to produce agreement on how to make the visits address curriculum recommendations from the district’s Equity, Diversity and Engagement Committee.
The resolution is an attempt to safeguard all students, supporters said.
Instead, resolution backers have created an unnecessary — and certainly untimely — controversy at a moment when public schools are under attack across the country.
Santa Fe Public Schools meetings, thankfully, have not been a place where angry people pack board meetings and scream. On Thursday, that standard of decorum was shattered. With more than 60 people participating in public comment, anger held sway, resulting in often unpleasant and occasionally unprofessional interactions.
Now, Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez has been charged with finding a compromise by Monday. Best of luck, Mr. Superintendent: With that kind of time frame, everyone is likely to be left unhappy. Contrast this rush with the long, drawn-out but ultimately successful compromise that led to the retirement of the controversial Entrada a few years back.
Here’s a simple compromise for now: Leave the 2023 visitations alone, and then seek to do better in the future. For longtime local Hispanics, who feel pushed out in their own town, the Fiesta is a moment to embrace their history and culture, including in the public schools. Those feelings matter. So, too, do the feelings of parents who want their Native children to feel safe at school.
One important point: While the Fiesta de Santa Fe, at its roots, is a religious event honoring the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Peace, not all Fiesta events are religious in nature. The Pet Parade, Zozobra, eating a corn dog on the Plaza — none of those, all in the public arena, are about foisting Christianity on anyone. Similarly, the historic portrayal of Don Diego de Vargas and his soldiers, along with La Reina, her princesas and the Native princesses, is not religious, any more than exchanging valentines in February is marking the death of an early Christian martyr.
Now, let’s stop viewing the visits in isolation and plan a year of diversity and discussion.
The school year could begin with Fiesta visits minus myth or exaggeration. Sing the Fiesta song and dance, invite everyone to the Plaza and let kids ask questions. Ensure that children who don’t want to participate have wonderful alternative activities. Move on to Indigenous Peoples Day in October and let local Native leaders discuss what that day means with children.
Throughout the year, the many diverse groups of Santa Fe can participate in in-school events. What about visits from local Muslims, Sikhs, Black residents, people from Africa, immigrants from Afghanistan or Mexico? This makes history and current events come alive in a way that reminds us of how we are all humans despite our different backgrounds and beliefs.
The bottom line? Of all the problems facing minority children in public schools, whether the Fiesta Court shows up for an hour once a year hardly ranks as the leading problem. Imagine if 60-plus angry people showed up to demand improved reading scores or better math instruction. Now, that would be something.