Capital principal says rally will prompt further discussions.
The topic of the day was immigrants' rights but the sun-soaked courtyard in front of Capital High School looked more like an international soccer match.
Groups of grinning
students, many draped in
Mexican or El Salvadoran flags, mingled about, joking and chatting in the sharp, staccato Spanish of their birthplaces.
Others wore brightly
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hued T-shirts or headbands
proclaiming immigrant solidarity and cheered wildly as speakers sang the praises of Santa Fe's immigrant population.
A third, smaller group watched warily nearby and occasionally broke into dissenting and raucous chants of "USA."
The noon March 30 student gathering garnered coverage the following day from both daily newspapers and was a microcosm of the country over the past month. As Congress considers various immigration reform proposals, students from Burbank to Brooklyn have rallied in droves to show their support for immigrants' rights.
The event at Capital, however, was more than a rally. The event served as a reminder of the tension in northern New Mexico between native-born Hispanics and those who hail from elsewhere, usually Mexico or Central America.
"They come to this country, they take our jobs, our money, our welfare. If they want to come to this country then they should fight for it," Capital 10th-grader Bernadette Maez said as she watched the rally, one hand clenching a large, billowing American flag. "I was born here."
Freshman Daniel Martinez chimed in: "It's all about New Mexico! It's all about the USA! That's what we represent."
A few feet away, fellow freshman Manuel Miramontes quietly responded: "I'm here to support my friends," he said. "We need everyone here to be treated equally."
Though the rally was largely peaceful, the static between the two groups of Hispanic students left an impression on Capital High Principal Darlene Ulibarri. Following the rally, Ulibarri instructed teachers to gather input from students and says she'd like, eventually, to have student groups further discuss the dynamic between the opposing factions.
"This issue exists," she says. "To what extent is open to interpretation."
Tita Gervers, director of student wellness for the Santa Fe Public School District, says the tension is more visible at Capital, where there are ostensibly more immigrant students. Although the district does not differentiate in its demographic surveys between native and foreign-born Hispanic students, approximately 28 percent of Capital's students are considered English-language learners. At Santa Fe High School only 20 percent fall into that category. At Capital, 85 percent of the students are Hispanic; 64 percent are at SFHS.
"It's a first generation versus second generation immigration issue," Gervers says. "Traditionally, in immigrant based societies like the US, the last group to get here is the group that tends to get picked on. That both groups are Hispanic is puzzling to me. I don't know that we have actual data to explain the tension."
The school district, in 2000, received a $200,000 federal grant to address, among other things, the targeting of immigrant students. Though a series of programs have been implemented-including bully and violence prevention-the grant expired in 2003.
Since then, Gervers says, there's been discussion about implementing a class on New Mexico history at Capital and of bringing in trained mediators.
"We're in the process of working with various school campuses to develop programs that help to give kids a voice," Gervers says. "We don't want to brush this thing under the rug."
While immigration is a heated debate nationwide, the native versus foreign-born tension in northern New Mexico is more unique.
"I think a lot of people who aren't from here look at a place like New Mexico and assume that if Mexicans are going to be welcomed anywhere, it will be here," noted author and University of Houston Associate Professor Rubén Martinéz says. "But New Mexican cultural politics are complicated. One could say that northern New Mexico is one of the least welcoming places for Mexican immigrants."
María Cristina López, a board member of local immigrant rights group Somos Un Pueblo Unido, believes most native-born Hispanics are supportive of immigrants.
"Our group has gotten a lot of support from locals, especially at the Legislature where it has been Hispanics from northern New Mexico who've carried our bills," López says. "Not to ignore the issue, but it was a small group of students at Capital; we feel we have more support than it appears."
If the Capital rally is any indication, Gervers and Ulibarri have their work cut out for them, at least in the public schools system.
As police cast a watchful eye over the groups of students, who by the end of the event were hurling shouts at each other, one girl uttered her opinion just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"If they like Mexico so much, they should just go back there," she said.
Nearby, freshman Alex Palacios, whose family originally hails from Tijuana, shook his head.
"Without Mexicans, there's not a lot going on in Santa Fe," he said. "We're here to fight for our rights. I don't think they get it."
