Last month, while attending a peaceful protest against the reinstatement of the Juan de Onate statue outside the County Annex building in Espanola, 23-year-old Ryan Martinez of Sandia Park pulled a handgun from his waistband and shot Native American activist Jacob Johns in the chest. Martinez, sporting a red MAGA ballcap reportedly grappled with several men while trying to make his way to a pedestal where the Oñate statue was to be erected. After breaking free, he hopped over a low wall, and that’s when he turned and fired one shot at Johns.
Johns was taken to UNM Hospital in an ambulance while Martinez was taken into custody shortly after fleeing in a white Tesla.
The John’s family said in an interview that the shooting is another case of the ongoing violence that Native peoples have faced for centuries. “For generations, Indigenous Peoples have faced harm, death, and systemic oppression,” stated the family in The Red Nation. “Last week’s premeditated shooting is just another historical event in a series of systemic injustices in Indigenous history.”
The family is calling for federal hate crime charges to be laid against Martinez and also called for Rio Arriba County officials to drop plans to reinstall the statue. Juan de Oñate, the Spanish conquistador and gold-digger is known for his heinous acts of violence against Native peoples in New Mexico during the 16th and 17th Centuries, including the Acoma massacre of 1599 that resulted in the deaths of around 500 Acoma men and 300 women and children.
Martinez had posted about the Onate statue on social media in the days leading up to the attack, supporting its reinstatement. On Martinez’s Facebook page, his profile picture is an image of him wearing a red MAGA hat and standing near a Tesla. In another photo, he poses with a handgun in his pants. Scrolling down his FB page there are other posts such as rants against Joe Biden, the Chinese Communist Party, claims that Trump won the 2020 election, and a photo of Trump with Kim Jong Un.
What happened to Jacob Johns is a symptom of the illness that plagues our nation, an illness that has been endemic in American culture, but now has reached epidemic proportions thanks to Newt Gingrich’s Tea Party and the Trump presidency. This illness is the result of a growing movement to establish an authoritarian regime based on minority rule, justified by a pseudo-Christian ideology, a love of guns, and a bizarre combination of libertarianism and fascist philosophy. What is most disturbing is that such right-wing radicalism has converged with current GOP philosophy.
So it fits that right-wing groups would protest the removal of monuments and statues of colonial and Confederate persons: They see them as heroes, while the rest of us see them for what they were: Oppressors.
Martinez, the Proud Boys, the 3 percenters, and those who were part of the January 6th insurrection have embraced an ideology that is based on white supremacy, sexism, anti-semitism, distrust of the government and the media while embracing QAnon, authoritarianism, and the latest conspiracy theories. And what’s bizarre is that such individuals see themselves as patriots and defenders of the Constitution.
Just as the family of Jacob Johns stated, Native Peoples have been plagued with systemic oppression time and time again. Systemic oppression is a dark trait shared by both the radical, right-wing MAGA movement and colonial Spain, so it’s no surprise that right-wing activists would support the reinstatement of the Onate statue. If we are to preserve our Democracy in 2024, we need to open our eyes and acknowledge what is happening to our nation. It’s time to reach out to Independents, Republicans, non-voters, and Democrats alike: We can put aside our differences and unite to defend our nation against the rising tide of authoritarianism.
What happened in Espanola wasn’t just about a statue.