Editing Alcalde, New Mexico (section)

== History ==
Each year on December 27, the city of Alcalde celebrates a feast day. One prominent focus of the celebration is when villagers enact Los Comanches, a poetic drama written 1780. The performance, based on true events, depicts the Spanish army's defeat of Comanche leader, Green Horn.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whitmore |first=Jane |date=2020-12-27 |title=Los Comanches Drama Performed in Alcalde, New Mexico |url=https://thebikiniproject.org/los-comanches-drama-performed-in-alcalde-new-mexico/ |access-date=2024-12-08 |website=The Bikini Project |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Juan De Oñate ===
Juan de Oñate, nicknamed The Last Conquistador, lead the final Spanish funded colonization venture of nearly 500 people to colonize the area of northern New Mexico in 1598.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oxford University Press |title=The American Historical Review |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=99 |pages=636–637 |via=JSOTR}}</ref>

In the summer of 2020, two statues of Juan de Oñate were taken down amid longstanding tensions between Native Americans and Hispanics over Spain’s conquest of New Mexico. Gunfire erupted during a protest in Albuquerque, where demonstrators called for the removal of a statue of Oñate, the tyrannical conquistador whose legacy has become a focal point in the wider national movement to confront racial injustice. While protests across the country have targeted various symbols of oppression, including statues of Christopher Columbus, the focus in New Mexico is shifting toward challenging symbols of colonial violence.

Earlier that day, authorities in the northern town of Alcalde removed another statue of Oñate, whose harsh rule as governor played a pivotal role in establishing centuries of Spanish control in the region.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=June 15, 2020 |title=Man Is Shot at Protest Over Statue of New Mexico's Conquistador |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/us/conquistador-onate-albuquerque-new-mexico-unrest.html |access-date=November 11, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

=== Georgia O'Keeffe ===
Renowned artist [[Georgia O'Keeffe]] created the oil painting titled "Near Alcalde, New Mexico, 1931" as a depiction of the Spanish Mission Church just outside of Alcalde. The painting is now housed in the Yale University Art Gallery.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Near Alcalde, New Mexico {{!}} Yale University Art Gallery |url=https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/53337 |access-date=2024-12-08 |website=artgallery.yale.edu}}</ref>