Down the Drain!

What's wrong with this picture?


Happy Tri-Centennial!

The City renamed Tiguex Park just east of Old Town to Tiguex Tricentennial Park.

During the city council debate about the placement of the controversial Juan de Oñate statues at Tiguex Park, several Native American speakers told the story of the Tiguex pueblo. The story goes that when Oñate arrived in what is now New Mexico, in 1598, a pueblo was flourishing in the region. Twelve years later, when the pueblo revolt ran Oñate out of New Mexico, the people of Tiguex had vanished.

You see banners and logos everywhere. I’m not a party pooper, but are we taking this a bit too far?

Did you know there is an official online store at the City of Albuquerque governmental website? I thought government was about providing services in exchange for tax dollars and actual fees.

So why is there an Albuquerque City Store on the tax paid website? The store is an internal link to a city vendor, Zia Graphics, a local screen graphics store on Carlisle N.E. http://www.albuquerquecitystore.com/. Enough of a free plug for them.

They sell T-shirts, caps, mugs, patches, pins and souvenirs of all shapes and manner. You can even buy an old parking meter. The tricentennial logo is a hot item.

Three hundred-years ago, Spanish settlers built the first church where the San Felipe de Neri Parish church now stands in Old Town. Since then, Albuquerque has had several flags fly over it as displayed on the plaza across from the church.


From the left are; the Spanish, Mexican, United States of America, New Mexico and Confederate States of America’s flags.

Mayor Martin Chávez has made the Tricentennial Celebration a major occurrence for the city with parades, parties, art and cultural events. Though there is a token recognition of Native American arts, the focus of the year and a half long party is the domination of the landscape by mostly Europeans, specifically Spanish Conquistadors over the local indigenous people.


Why is the logo associated with waste, as it appears here on a public trash receptacle?

So what's wrong with this picture?

The domination of one people, celebrated over another people, from the same community, stinks.

I guess that’s why the tricentennial logo is on the “sanitary” manhole cover. In other words, it covers the sewer.