Letters to the Editor: The American Southwest still shows evidence of its nuanced history

To the editor: Guest contributor Peter C. Mancall deplores the absence of Po’pay, the Native American leader of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt against the Spaniards, in the list of names proposed for the new Garden of American Heroes (“One of our original freedom fighters is missing from the Garden of American Heroes,” Jan. 9).

Regardless of the merits of the case, it should be noted that he uses the categories of “religious liberty” and “political independence” — 18th century Enlightenment ideas — to shape Po’pay into a precursor of early American freedom fighters. There is no direct historical link between the Pueblo Revolt, which took place in the northern confines of the transatlantic Spanish empire, and the 13 Atlantic coastal colonies of the British. The Pueblo Revolt did not take place in the territorial boundaries of the U.S. and needs a different set of circumstances to put it in context.

Mancall uses elements of the Spanish Black Legend to criticize the Spanish presence in the Americas, noting that in “this violent era, Po’pay became one of the most consequential figures on the continent — and the embodiment of the American idea that people should be free from oppressive rulers and free, too, to practice their faith as they see fit.”

In “Conquests and Cultures: An International History” (1998), Thomas Sowell proposes a better framework to understand how the Native Americans’ encounter with Spain is not a black-and-white political, cultural, technological and religious affair. When traveling through the Southwest today, we see that conversation still taking place centuries later.

Maria Elena de las Carreras, Porter Ranch