From: howl@dontemailme.com   
      
   In article , laro@idworld.net says...   
      
   >The man was   
   >Onate, the date was about 1599, if my recall hasn't slipped too far.   
      
   I wonder if you're aware of the controversy   
   surrounding the towering bronze of Onate on   
   his steed that has been under construction for   
   years and is to be installed in El Paso somewhere?   
      
   Since the statue was first commissioned, the   
   anti-Onate movement has really take off.   
   It's interesting for the fact that there   
   is no significant Amerindian presence in El Paso   
   today - Tiqua crossbreeds aside. It seems   
   that there is generally a politically liberal   
   resistance - among hispanics mostly - against   
   'honoring' the memory of Onate in any way.   
      
   It began some years ago with the vandalizing   
   of a statue in Albuquerque when elements there   
   took a cutting torch to the feet of the statue   
   as a way of calling attention to the oft-repeated   
   tale that Onate cut off the feet of rebellious   
   indians as a way of both punishing them and   
   keeping them indentured. Whether or not Onate   
   actually did such a dastardly thing remains   
   a subject of conjecture among historians, with   
   some quoting Spanish archival material from   
   that era as proof it happened.   
      
   Here is but one of hundreds of articles on   
   the web on the Onate controversy:   
      
   http://www.voznuestra.com/Americas/_1999/_March/26   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)