The First Thanksgiving was in Texas?! Meet Don Juan de Oñate…
“The Equestrian” Location: El Paso International Airport, El Paso, TX, 31°48′26″N 106°22′39″W, a solid bronze statute by artist John Sherrill Houser
As we prepare to celebrate the official Thanksgiving Day memorializing the events on Plymouth Rock, there is an interesting historical possibility to suggest that the first Thanksgiving in the continental U.S. was actually celebrated by Spanish explorers. In San Elizario, Texas, a suburb of El Paso, there is a celebration of the first Hispanic pioneers conducting expeditions into North America. According to the Texas Almanac, “A new Thanksgiving tradition has taken root in Texas. El Paso residents now claim the first Thanksgiving in North America. The modern event, first observed in April 1989, commemorates a day of thanksgiving celebrated by Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate and his expedition on April 30, 1598.”[1] This event was a celebration by the party of Don Juan de Oñate after surviving a treacherous 50-day expedition across the Chihuahuan Desert. After running out of food and water, and almost going mad, they found their salvation in the waters of the Rio Grande. Upon surviving the trek, they celebrated a great feast between the Spaniards and the natives of the region and then declared the land to be the possession of Spain.[2] This feast is celebrated in San Elizario, Texas by the El Paso Historic Mission Trail Association in April of each year.
As a continuation of the celebration of the regional heritage, a project titled “The 12 Travelers” was inaugurated. This project was intended to set up monuments and sculptures to persons who played a role in exploring the Texas/New Mexico region by bringing the cultures of Spain and Mexico into the region. Jody Schwartz, in a column for El Paso Inc. states, “Some of the contributions of these first Hispanic pioneers and subsequent expeditions to North America are: the Spanish language, Christianity, European musical instruments, farming and mining equipment, spices, cookware, seeds and domestic animals that included cattle, pigs and goats.”[3]
One of “The 12 Travelers” was to be Don Juan de Oñate, the man behind the first Thanksgiving remembrance. To honor him, a giant statue of him on horseback was commissioned with an intention to display it prominently in a Downtown Plaza. Artist John Sherrill Houser built what is thought to be the world’s largest bronze horseman, at nearly four stories tall and weighing 11 tons. The project ran almost $2.3 million. It turns out that not everyone felt a statue commemorating Oñate was a good idea. There are concerns about reported abuses perpetrated by Oñate on the Acoma Indian tribe. There are reports, cited by Texas House Representative Norma Chavez, which indicate that “he is infamous for his cruelty to the Acoma Indians, killing hundreds of Indians, punishing 24 with amputation of a foot.”[4] These are disputed claims, with some historians questioning whether the events were carried out and, if so, claiming that he “was no more brutal than his era and his enemies.”[5] When the controversy caused a very public debate, the City Council decided to ensure that they didn’t inappropriately give honor to someone who may have a checkered past, regardless of his historical impact on the region. “The Council voted to deny Oñate glory by giving the work a generic name.”[6]
In order to clear their conscience and ensure that only non-controversial events in history are commemorated, the statue of Don Juan de Oñate was re-named simply “The Equestrian”. There now stands in the plaza of the El Paso International Airport, a giant metal horse with an unknown man sitting in the saddle. The glorious history of the region relegated to an anonymous rider on a horse with no name. The name change did not sit well with everyone involved, as some decried it as political correctness run amuck and looked at it as another attempt to sanitize history.
“You have to look at him not in the context of today’s gross sensitivities. Otherwise you would not have a statue to anyone. Could you deny George Washington his place because he was out fighting Indians? The Acoma themselves committed atrocities against other tribes. Everyone has ancestors who knocked somebody on the head.”[7] Dr. John L. Kessell (professor emeritus of the University of New Mexico), in an e-mail message after the City Council renamed the statue “The Equestrian”, called the move ‘’a generic joke’’ and added: “There are probably still Confederate sympathizers who would applaud if we renamed the tall man seated in the Lincoln Memorial simply ‘The President.’”[8]
The point of this article is to take a look at the monument to the man who arguably celebrated the First Thanksgiving in America as a tribute to the history of the region. It is not intended to take away from the celebration at Plymouth Rock, but to acknowledge the full history of our country and the many cultures that have come to influence us. It is about looking at our world and the attempts to erase significant persons or events in our history because someone has a differing view on the subject; because someone might be offended. Rather than discuss the issues and bring to light the good and the bad, we are falling into a trap where we sanitize history to the point of essentially erasing it. We create monuments to remember the struggles and learn from the lessons of our predecessors. What lesson does a giant horse with an unknown rider in the middle of the airport plaza teach us? Nothing really; except maybe that our politicians fear controversy and that the taxpayers paid way too much money for that giant thing!
[1] http://texasalmanac.com/topics/history/timeline/first-thanksgiving
[2] ibid
[3] http://www.elpasoinc.com/opinion/guest_columns/article_c4acab02-8c29-11e3-8b6c-0017a43b2370.html
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7] ibid
Monumental USA is dedicated to highlighting local monuments and the human stories that lay at their foundation. The desire is to reinvigorate civic pride and sense of ownership through interesting monuments to events and personalities great and small across the nation, with a special focus on local and perhaps obscure or forgotten memorials.
