The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-11
WANTS TO BE STATE.
SENIOR BACA's ELOQUENT BUT
FIERY PLEA FOR NEW MEXICO.
The Land of the Don and the Peon-
Loyalty to the Land of Their
Birthstone in n Saloon at Al
buquerque-Rise of Greaser.

81 would rather have New Mexico a
state of Mexico than territory of the
United States,'a exclaimed Don Santi-
ago in broken English as he excitedly
rose from his chair in the group about
the stove in Armijos' saloon at Albu-
iquerque and hurled his unfinished Gig
arette into the open stove door. Senior
Baca is a native Spanish don, the
county assessor, a man of wealth and
influence. The Americans and Next
cans in the saloon, knowing his Spanish
blood was up, gathered round to hear
as he poured forth in Spanish:
by the treaty of Guadalupe HI
dalgo we were guaranteed the ful
rights of citizens of the United States.
That is why we consented to be torn
away from Mexico, our native country,
land annexed to the United States. /
was a boy in Santa Fe then but 1
remember the time and how my father
used to swear and say: Our people
would have Cleaned out the whole
gang of Americans, soldiers, Jews and
land citizens, if it hadn't been for the
fair promises of General Kearney when
he took possession of Santa Fe in 1916.
Then they made the treaty of 1S4S, and
our people thought we'd soon be a
state My father used to say, I'll
give the United States government just
five years longer to make us citizens
and as long as he lived he used to talk
and rage about it."
The Spaniard was now deep in his
subject. He had pushed his broad
brimmed hat far back on his head,
his voice was unduIating and vibrat-
t ing with feeling-his hands moving in
emphatic gesture-as he leaned for
ward, with face flushed with fervor
and glowing black eyes.
when l came back from school at
Chihuahua my father said, My boy, [
have a good mind to send you back to
Mexico to grow up, where you can
have your rights But / didn't go
back. staid here, for I wanted to be
citizen of the greatest republic in the
world. Now, senors, we have been
waiting lifetime to see the United
States live up to that agreement of
forty-hve years ago. If they are not
going to do that, 1 want this country
annexed to Mexico, where we can be
as good as anybody.
ARIZONA and Colorado were first all
New Mexico. They have been cut off
and Colorado made a state But we
are as badly off as ever. If they keep
on slicing off our country, we don't
know what will become of New Mexico.
to Arizona. But we will never allow
that. The Mexican people would vote
against 1T in a mass. ST, senors, we
would fight, for we are built that way.
IL they want to annex Arizona to New
Mexico and call the whole New Mexico,
that is all right, This is our native
land. Its name is New Mexico, and we
are Mexicans. We would not give up
our name and identity
I g e.,
US as the city of Washington We had
better go back to Mexico where they
want us. You all know how President
Diaz years ago offered to give every
man who would go from here l. 900
acres of land and furnish farming i'm
PIGMENTS, and if a man was too poor
to support himself and family to sup
ply him with provisions for one year
free A brother-in-law of mine went
there in colony a year ago. [ don't
want to leave this country, where I
have always lived, but if Thought my
son would have to grow up and be-
come gray as [ am without being a.
full citizen of the United States I
would strike out with a burro outfit
down the Rio Grande, leave my house
and lands and never come back"
The men who had sat like images of
stone in their chairs jumped up with
don by the hand, slapped him on the
back. made grand rush and push for
the bar, lined up and drank to the
meath of Don Santiago de Baca and
the welfare of the state of New Mexico.
Is it possible that those are. Ameri-
cans who stand among the Mexican
lcrowd sycophantly drinking to revo-
4 lutionary sentiments? Yes. they are
statehood agitators who are fawning
on the Mexicans toseset their numeri-
cal support for some office at the state
telection, which they think is not for off.
Most who lift their glasses are swarthy
MeXicans Of the lower class, who have
no sentiments apart from their leader.
They are the 100000 natives of New
Mexico whose dense ignorance has so
long kept the territory out of the
Union. They contrast as strongly with
the fiery, Intelligent speaker as do the
Ignorant blacks and aristocratic whites
of the south.
That tall Mexican leaning against
the end of the bar, with aquiline nose
and sinister, mustached face, we'll rep
tresents his class Of poems. His SOM
brero is soiled, and his shirt droops
icollarlesS and unclean. A coat, small
1ll-htting, and old, cheap blue striped
trousers turned up around the ankle
and dusty spurred boots make I'D his
apparel. Around his right wrist is the
twisted loup of his rawhide quirt rid
ing whip, whose snappers bangle
lround his heels.
His upper forehead is light hut
shades till the brows, cheek and face
are as dark as the Indians. whose
sluggish blood, mingled with the
Spanish strain, makes the low class
Mexican commonly known as greasers.
He is a sheep herder, but he is a. good
citizen. He is a Democrat this year.
dnr-c~ %11l
Mexico must be Democratic to become
state. He may be a Republican next
year if native politician talks to him
about the relation of the tariff and
wool and wages about clipping time.
But that will depend on the don, for
ne always votes as he is told by the
don who. rules or the don who wants
to rule the country. He pays his
taxes regularly on his mud house and
garden and flock of sheep. 1t isn't
much, for up to 5000 a Mexican's prop
erty is exempt from taxation But
whatever the assessor figures his su-
perfiuous wealth to be he pays the
levy thereupon cheerfully. 1t may be
ii or 81 or in an exceedingly active
political year, So.
His answer to all questions is mo
English but he can scrawl his name
in Spanish, and there is a story con-
nected with this Jose's signature. He
was once teacher To be sure, he
could not read beyond the primer, but
that was no reason a powerful man
like he could not make his pupils
learn. He could not write, but why
should not an apt teacher learn from
his pupils? So he got an appointment
from the Mexican county commissioner
for a winter school while there was
no herding to be done and the sheep
We're in the corral fattening for NUT
ton. He took the school for two
months. The first month he had so
many fights with is grownup pupils