Deep Roots and Long Shadows: The Cultural Politics of Memory and Longing in Northern New Mexico

Abstract

In this paper I explore the cultural politics of memory and longing in northern New Mexico. The paper begins by examining the ways that, for many Hispanos, land and identity depend on remembered Spanish and Mexican pasts. It continues by showing, through the case of the violent takeover of an old land grant, the political possibilities and contemporary identities that are enabled through the linking of distant past and contemporary land politics. It also demonstrates the ways in which deviating from the past dilutes these same formations and possibilities that accompany these histories—clearly delineated by treaties, deeds, patrimony, etc. The paper then explores—through the contemporary political struggle surrounding the dismembering of a statue erected to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Spanish arrival in northern New Mexico—the ways in which these very memories also tie Hispanos to alternative violent histories of conquest and colonialism. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates the ways that contemporary land and identity politics in northern New Mexico trap Hispanos between what they need to remember and what others will not let them forget.

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