As anti-racist insurrections swept across the country this summer, protesters in El Paso set their sights on one statue: the Equestrian.
A 36-foot-high bronze statue, the Equestrian—part of a series of sculptures called the XII Travelers Memorial—commemorates the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate. The larger-than-life rendering of Oñate shows him sitting atop a horse in a heroic pose during la toma, the act of claiming Indigenous lands for the crown. Oñate was responsible for the death of more than 800 people from the village of Acoma. He punished Native rebels by chopping off men’s feet, condemning women and children to slavery, and deporting them to Mexico City. The statue, sculpted by El Paso artist John Houser, cost more than $2 million in public and private funds to erect.
The statue is one of El Paso’s most famous—and it’s long been controversial. Protests led by the Southwest Indigenous Alliance, composed of members of the Acoma community, the Manso-Piro-Tiwa tribe, and other Native and fronterizo activists, during the official inauguration of the statue in 2007 received widespread coverage, including in the PBS documentary The Last Conquistador. Most of the debate surrounding the statue has focused on whether a publicly-subsidized monument should celebrate a man who was convicted by the Spanish crown during his lifetime for atrocities committed against Indigenous communities under his rule.
