State district court to weigh the future of monument in Santa Fe

Virgil Vigil, president of the Union Protectiva de Santa Fe, and attorney Kenneth Stalter participate in a virtual court hearing on Sept. 6, 2024. (Screenshot courtesy of First Judicial District Court)

A judge this week will decide the future of a controversial monument that sat at the center of New Mexico’s state capital for 152 years, until protesters tore it down during the wave of social unrest four years ago.

The Soldier’s Monument, also known as the Obelisk, was built on the Santa Fe Plaza in June 1868, according to a newspaper clipping from the time included in court records.

At the heart of the issue facing First Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Wilson is to determine if the emergency proclamation issued by Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber on June 18, 2020 was legal.

The proclamation called for the removal of three monuments in the city: the Kit Carson statue at the federal courthouse, the Don Diego de Vargas statue at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and the Soldier’s Monument or Obelisk at the Plaza.

Protesters who said they were tired of waiting for the city government to remove the Obelisk tore it down themselves in October 2020 amid deep social unrest that year: the George Floyd protests, criticism of police violence, and the destruction or removal of more than 160 monuments to the Confederacy — including the removal of the Spanish colonial statues in Alcalde and Albuquerque after Steven Baca Jr. shot a protester.

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The Union Protectiva de Santa Fe, a local social and fraternal organization, filed a civil lawsuit in June 2021 asking the court to force Webber and the city government to “repair and restore” the Soldier’s Monument at the Santa Fe Plaza.

The city government in May asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit.

However, the case will move forward after Wilson ruled on Sept. 6 there is evidence of a dispute about whether Webber’s proclamation and the actions taken at his direction could be considered illegal under state law governing historically significant sites.

Wilson said the Union Protectiva de Santa Fe presented evidence that the city’s changes to the Plaza, including encasing the Soldier’s Monument base in a box and putting a sign in front of it, along with removing the de Vargas statue, could arguably violate the law.

On Thursday, there will be a bench trial in the case, meaning the judge will act as the jury.

Stanley Harris is representing the city government in the case. On Sept. 6, he argued Webber issued the proclamation in the interest of public safety, and the city’s emergency code allows city officials to act on an emergency basis.

Continued prominent and public display of the monuments, without ongoing public debate about their appropriate treatment and context, “perpetuates systemic racism, civil unrest, and may lead to violence,” the proclamation states.

The city government removed the de Vargas statue in June 2020, and city officials said the purpose was to protect it from potential damage. In August, the city government put the de Vargas statue on public display at the New Mexico History Museum. Others damaged the Kit Carson statue in 2020 and again in 2023 .

Kenneth Stalter, the attorney for the Union Protectiva de Santa Fe, argued the city government never did the legally required planning to come up with alternatives to its proposals, so it is barred from spending public funds in the way it did.

Stalter argued that since the city’s emergency ordinance does not explicitly give officials the authority to remove monuments, it did not give the city government the authority to remove the de Vargas statue.

Harris argued the Santa Fe City Council has not made a final decision about what to do with the Soldier’s Monument, so the law doesn’t apply the way the plaintiffs are arguing.

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