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PORTAL DIVIDE
It looks like the same old divide and then conquer approach is being used to eliminate some of the Native peoples' last bits of sovereignty [Cover story, Feb. 22:
]. Too bad that apparently (too) many Natives are falling for this once again. It seems ridiculous that non-Native people are there to determine standards for the artwork of the Pueblo/Navajo tribes. Without the Native vendors, general business in all of downtown Santa Fe would drop drastically. I salute all the people who stand by Merton Sisneros and Glen Paquin.
Don Martin
Santa Fe
SOVEREIGNTY ISSUE
The Museum of New Mexico markets the Native American vendors portal program as a "living exhibition." As cited in the article, I interpret Karl Hoerig's
Under the Palace Portal
at best as a mere snapshot of vendor life and experience that can only be told from a non-Indian anthropologist perspective. The same can be said from the "higher ups" in charge of the vendors program: Stuart Ashman, Frances Levine and Carlotta Boettcher.
Ashman, Levine and Boettcher are products of Anglo sensibilities who have no understanding of what it means to be an artist in the Plaza. For Native vendors, the collection of stones and clay for items to be sold is a relational process. Sitting under the bitter cold palace portal, smiling for tourists and answering silly questions about "Indian" life are just a few of the emotional labor ordeals that Indian vendors confront daily. We, the public, only view the most public of practices when artists sell jewelry and pottery.
The removal of elected representatives to the vendors program, Glen Paquin and Merton Sisneros, is just the tip of the iceberg in a long line of rocky historical relations. At the heart of the issue, I believe, is a cultural disconnection. Approximately two million tourists a year visit the portal. Indians are popularly captured in postcards and brochures. Yet, little does the public know the overbearing state regulations the artists go through to get a space in the Plaza to sell. Spaces are not guaranteed and artists travel from far away for a chance to be a part of the "living exhibition." It's long overdue for Indians to confront oppressive institutional practices that are in place to benefit non-Indian markets and desires. It's time for the rest of the Indian vendors to organize and define a working space-a place which is not solely for a tourist gaze but a work place that is conducive to Indian artists as defined by Indians.
Matthew J Martinez
Ohkay Owingeh
MAYOR CULPA
In my response to last week's Pop Quiz question regarding the Amigos del Alcalde fund, I mistakenly stated that the fund had been used for travel by the mayor and his family. This was factually incorrect. I apologize to Mayor Delgado and his family for my misstatement.
David Coss
Santa Fe
REPORT RETORT
Whether or not it was intended to be rhetorical, I would like to respond to a question posed by Annette Strom [Letters, Feb. 15:
]. Ms. Strom asks: "Why do you continually publish inflammatory stories that just rile up people but have no constructive solutions to the problems that exist in our community?" The publication in question is called the Santa Fe Reporter, not the Santa Fe Solution. I believe its primary function is to keep its readers informed, i.e. to report the news. When a publication prints a story about a murder, it is not expected to offer suggestions on how to reduce the murder rate in the community. Let the Santa Fe Reporter keep doing what it does best. Leave the solutions to our problems up to us.
Joshua Wilson
Santa Fe
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