Monumental
MonumentalThe landscape of public memory is shifting. As we re-examine the plaques in our parks and sculptures on our streets, we grapple with what to do with them. Once we learn the stories these objects tell about who we are, will tearing down statues and renaming schools be enough?
Monumental interrogates the state of monuments across the country and what their future says about our own. In this 10-episode series, host and author Ashley C Ford and a team of audio journalists from around the country will piece together the complex stories behind some of the thousands of monuments that exist in every corner of the U.S. Listen to Monumental weekly on Mondays beginning October 30, 2023.
For more information about Monumental, visit our website at www.prx.org/monumental
The landscape of public memory is shifting. As we re-examine the plaques in our parks and sculptures on our streets, we grapple with what to do with them. Once we learn the stories these objects tell about who we are, will tearing down statues and renaming schools be enough?
Monumental interrogates the state of monuments across the country and what their future says about our own. In this 10-episode series, host and author Ashley C Ford and a team of audio journalists from around the country will piece together the complex stories behind some of the thousands of monuments that exist in every corner of the U.S. Listen to Monumental weekly on Mondays beginning October 30, 2023.
For more information about Monumental, visit our website at www.prx.org/monumental
Monumental Conflict in Santa Fe
An obelisk called The Soldiers' Monument in downtown Santa Fe was erected after the Civil War to honor soldiers from Northern New Mexico who died fighting the Confederacy. But the monument also honors Union soldiers who fought “savage Indians,” – their scorched earth methods resulted in the systematic rape, enslavement, and forced relocation of thousands of Navajo and Apache people.
For decades, Indigenous activists had called for the obelisk to come down. In 2020 protestors tore it down, leaving only the monument's base. The backlash to its removal stoked resentment and misinformation from some Hispanic residents who blamed “wokeness” and liberal outsiders for erasing their heritage. Conflicts over the obelisk appear to be a culmination of longstanding tensions between the city’s Hispanic and Indigenous communities. But we uncover their roots in Santa Fe’s 400-year-old identity crisis - an identity built on colonialism, slavery, and mythology. Producer Ben Montoya looks at the city's choice now: to rebuild the past or pave a new future.
For more resources related to this episode, visit the episode page on www.prx.org/monumental
Additional audio was recorded with help from Ryan Thompson and Georgina Hahn. This episode was produced on the ancestral lands of the Tewa and Kumeyaay people. Special thanks to Dani Prokop, Arte Romero y Carver, Luis Peña, Gerard Martinez y Valencia, Rob Martinez, Autumn Gomez, Christina Castro, DezBaa, David Henderson, Alicia Guzman, Valerie Rangel, Estevan Rael-Galvez, Alma Castro, and Tod Seelie.