Moving Towards Brighter Public Futures

A letter from UNM Latina/o Faculty

July 16, 2020

 

Dear President Garnett Stokes and the Board of Regents:

 

As Chicana/o and Latina/o faculty at UNM, we stand for quality, culturally inclusive research, teaching, and service that supports social justice and interethnic and intercultural understanding and cooperation. European colonialism in the Americas entailed the destruction, suppression, and marginalization of the original peoples of the Americas, diverse Indigenous populations with a long and rich history on the continent. Colonialism also depended upon the enslavement of people, the theft of labor, land, and resources, and brutal forms of violence against Native American and African-origin people. Moreover, punitive forms of indoctrination pervaded the lives of oppressed peoples. Colonial and modern structures of violence, including monuments, memorials, and naming practices that glorify and uphold racism, white supremacy, and patriarchal heteronormativity are the antithesis of meaningful interethnic collaborations and solidarities. To many, iconographies of colonialism that uphold colonial authoritative practices represent the subjugation and continuing degradation of Indigenous and African people’s human worth, dignity, and knowledge systems. Furthermore, some colonial memorabilia idealizes and concretizes eurocentrism, patriarchy, racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, and abilism and erases those most victimized by the violent structures and processes of eurocentric colonialism. We believe that icons, relics, and monuments that celebrate and rationalize the destructive impacts of colonialism and imperialism perform ongoing forms of strategic erasure and white supremacy. We firmly oppose any celebration of genocidal violence and ideology in any public sphere.

Therefore, we ask the leadership of the University of New Mexico and the state of New Mexico to remove memorials and naming practices that deny Indigenous peoples, African descent people, and all People of Color their humanity and collective sense of justice. We hope that you can commit to this pledge by the end of the fall 2020 semester in order to signal to the campus and the state that the University of New Mexico is committed to impactful campus diversity and inclusion.

Public coffers should not be used to sustain monuments to racism and white superiority. A society built upon the monuments of those who abused power is a society built upon ruins. Let’s work together to eliminate names and monuments that iconize individuals and events that celebrate or diminish the realities of cruelty and violence towards Indigenous peoples, African, Asian, and Latin American descent peoples and their racially and ethnically diverse descendants on this continent.

We can begin by conducting a swift audit of names, objects, and monuments that normalize colonialism and its legacies. Removing names, statues, and objects is a first step and would be a symbolic way of working towards diversity, inclusion, and social justice. We also need to participate in and support continued research and education on campus and in our communities so that we can all learn and grow from the past and create a better future for all. There are many positive,  ondrous elements in our lives that we can look to as the substance of our memories and histories. We commit to searching for those names and objects to represent us and to lead us to a path of peace, dignity, and solidarity.
Endorsed by the Research Faculty of the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute
Signed by:

Ana R. Alonso-Minutti, Associate Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology

Magdalena Avila, Dr.P.H., MPH, MSW, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator

Community Health Education Program

Dorothy Baca, Professor, Head of Design for Performance, Dept. of Theatre & Dance

Jacobo Baca, Adjunct Instructor, Chicana and Chicano Studies

Laura Elena Belmonte, Assistant Professor, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies

Alfonso Belmonte, MD, FAAP, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Rebecca Blum Martinez, Professor Bilingual Education, College of Education

Lisa Cacari Stone, Associate Professor of Health & Social Policy, College of Population Health

Director, Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement Center for Advancing Behavioral

Health

Dora Careaga-Colman, Assistant Professor, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies

Teresa Córdova, Professor Emeritus, Community and Regional Planning

Claudia Díaz Fuentes, Senior Lecturer III

Leila Flores-Dueñas, Associate Professor, Dept. of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership

& Policy

Geraldine Forbes Isais,, Professor of Architecture, ACSA Distinguished Professor

Miguel Gandert, Distinguished and Emeritus Professor, Department of Communications

David Floyd García, Adjunct Faculty, Chicana Chicano Studies Department

LM García y Griego, Associate Professor, Chicana and Chicano Studies & History

Myrriah Gómez, Assistant Professor, Honors College

Elizabeth González Cárdenas, Assistant Professor, Chicana Chicano Studies Department

Moises Gonzales, Associate Professor, Community and Regional Planning

Ray Hernández-Durán, Professor of Art History and Museum Studies, Department of Art

Michelle Hall Kells, Associate Professor, Department of English

Enrique Lamadrid, Distinguished & Emeritus Professor, Department of Spanish

Nancy López, Director & Co-founder, Institute for the Study of “Race” & Social Justice

Troy Lovato, Professor, Honors College

Manuel Montoya, Associate Dean, Planetary Decisionmaking and Inclusion, University College,

Associate Professor, International Management, FII Department Professor of Creative Enterprise

Margaret Montoya, Professor Emerita, School of Law

Robert Otto Valdez, PhD MHSA, RWJF Professor Emeritus, Economics AND Family &

Community Medicine

Adriana RamÍrez de Arellano, Senior Lecturer Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

Barbara Reyes, Emeritus Associate Professor, Department of History

Ilia Rodríguez, Associate Professor, Director, M.A. Program in Communication Studies,

Department of Communication & Journalism

Levi Romero, Assistant Professor, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, New Mexico

State Centennial Poet and New Mexico Poet Laureate

Patricia Rosas Lopategui, Associate Professor, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies

Patricia Ann Roybal Caballero, Adjunct Instructor, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies

Gabriel R. Sanchez, Professor, Department of Political Science, Executive Director, UNM

Center for Social Policy

Rebecca Sánchez, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy

Shannon-Sanchez Youngman, College of Population Health

Victoria Sánchez, Associate Director, MPH program, Associate Professor, College of Population

Health

Eleuterio Santiago-Díaz, Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Richard Santos, Professor, Department of Economics

Jose Luis Serrano Najera, Assistant Professor, Chicana Chicano Studies Department

Diane Torres-Velásquez, Associate Professor, Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and

Policy

Francisco Uviña-Contreras, Director, Historic Preservation and Regionalism Graduate Certificate

Program, School of Architecture and Planning

Santiago R. Vaquera-Vásquez, Creative Writing, Hispanic Southwest & Latin American

Literatures & Cultures, Spanish & Portuguese

Maggie Werner-Washburne, Regents Professor Emerita and Director, STEM Boomerang

Damián Vergara Wilson, Associate Professor, Coordinator of the Spanish as a Heritage

Language Program

Irene Vásquez, Director, Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, Chair, Chicana and Chicano

Studies

Melina Vizcaíno-Alemán, Associate Professor, Department of English

Nahir I. Otaño Gracia, Assistant Professor, Department of English

Dina Barajas PhD, UNM Alumni, Department of American Studies

Norma A. Valenzuela, Assistant Professor of Spanish, New Mexico Highlands University

Cristina Baccin, Journalist, Espejos de Aztlán Coordinator, Raíces Collective of KUNM Radio

Patricia Perea, Instructor

Florence Emily Castillo, Instructor/PhD Candidate, Sociology

Patricio Tlacaelel Trujillo y Fuentes - Interim president LULAC Council 8100 Burque’s Flor y

Canto, The Hispanic Heritage Committee, Chicano artist.

Vivian Nora Felipe, Gratuate student in the Department of Education. Language Literacy and

Sociocultural Studies. Southwest Hispanic Research Institute. Chicana Chicano Studies minor

co/2015.