Las Gorras Blancas
March 27, 2022
Hello again,
Well, it was an interesting week out here. And, I must add, nothing of note happened out on the ranch, but in town, in Las Vegas, there is quite a controversy brewing. The local municipal museum has been working for a couple of years on putting together an exhibit on a local secret society that dates back about 125 years. They had members come in surreptitiously to build an altar for the exhibit and to give their blessing, but now, all of a sudden, the mayor is slamming the brakes on and claiming that the museum did not go through the town's proper channels to get permission to have this exhibit(even though it's the town's museum!). The secret society is called las Gorras Blancas, or the White Caps, and they date back to the 1880s when the railroad was just new in town and bringing lots of East Coast people and capital out to these parts. Las Vegas, just like where we live in San Jose, was a common land grant community that was chartered by the Mexican government in 1835 to encourage residents of what was then that country's northeastern-most province to settle on the east side of the mountains from Santa Fe to act as a buffer for that same said town from the Comanches, the Texans and the Americans. Our little community of San Jose was formed out of the San Miguel del Vado grant from 1794 for the same purposes, although that grant came from the Kingdom of Spain itself, as Mexico had not yet gained independence(1821). These grants were given to a set list of people, their families and their descendants to form a town around a central plaza, in typical Spanish design(where the few passages in to the plaza could be barricaded to protect the town, its inhabitants and its livestock) and all the adjacent land was held in common for everyone's usage. So, if you needed to get firewood, or graze your animals, or haul water, you went out into the common land to do this, just as all of your neighbors could. Fast forward to the railroad years and with all the money and power pouring in from the East, these common land areas were soon being fenced in(or out, depending upon your perspective), breaking what had up until that time been the established custom of land usage out here. However, with the arrival of all the money from the East came the attached lawyers, judges, sheriffs, bankers and businessmen that soon gobbled up all the powerful positions in this area and saw to it that the rules were rewritten accordingly to benefit all the new vested interests and, as was often the case, the investors from back East who were fronting all of the money.
So, to fight this, starting in 1889, the White Caps began to ride out at night to disassemble all of the fences, burn down all of the new barns, unblock all of the new dams, and destroy the railroad ties, the produce and the other goods of the newly-arrived power brokers of the area. This, of course, did not go down well and soon entreaties were being made to all levels of government, even up to the President, to send in the military to protect all of the shareholders' investments(some things never change, right?). It was only a matter of years after Mexico became independent and trade and commerce were blossoming on the Santa Fe Trail for Fort Union to be built so that the military could protect all of that trade. In a similar vein, there's a reason that every household in this country has access to cheap and plentiful bananas that don't grow here: the military followed our corporations into Latin America to protect their interests(and to suppress any workers' uprisings along the way) so that United Fruit and others could make a fortune, while paying almost nothing locally, to bring this precious commodity stateside. So, in this situation in late 19th century New Mexico, the full pressure and power of the governor, the courts, and even the US War Department were brought to bear on tiny, little Las Vegas to snuff this little insurgency out before it had a chance to grow. In one instance, the governor finally crossed the mountains to Las Vegas(after wishing the problem away from Santa Fe for a very long time) to speak with the locals about it and was expecting to find nothing but support for going after las Gorras Blancas, only to find virtually the entire community supporting them and, in turn, complaining about all of the dirty and underhanded tricks being pulled by the powerful new businesses in the area to circumvent the communal land arrangements. To make things even more interesting, the White Caps wore gunnysacks on their heads to hide their identities and developed a religious order that was rooted in the penitent societies of Spain that so famously parade around in their elaborate, hooded costumes during la Semana Santa, the Holy Week, that leads up to Easter. So, back to the present, and the mayor has jammed the brakes on this long-planned exhibit, a hooded rider rode down Grand Avenue in the middle of the day last week and I'm not sure if the town is afraid of divulging the secrets of a secret society, if it's afraid to rouse this area's long-dormant low-wage workers to rise up again, or if, in this day and age's excessively Woke society, one is not even allowed to exhibit pictures of hooded men because of the similarity that they might have to the KKK and the offense that that might cause. I really am honestly stumped, so stay tuned!
And, once again, I've included a new batch of pictures for everyone to enjoy. First up, three shots of us watching the boss's dogs while the boss is away on business: first, new addition Buck enjoying the weather, with Forest the Cat watching through the door; then, Cheyenne sitting pretty; and, finally, a shot of all three. Next, a shot of Rui lounging in the backseat when I had to run into Vegas the other day to run some errands. Then, a current shot of the garden now that Erin has ripped out everything that she had wanted to and then started rearranging all of the raised beds. Then, a big, ol' horse tooth that I found at the bottom of one of the feeders a couple of days ago...everyone's still eating just fine, but I think that one of them can probably whistle now! Next, a series of five shots from the jobsite where I'm now cutting flagstone, just like my buddy, Valentin, has been doing since I got here: first, a selfie showing how dusty and dirty you get; then, one of the big slabs that I had divvied into pieces with chalk lines; next, the center of the stone that is so hard to reach and must be cut into little cubes to be fully removed; then, the back of the buggy that was serving as my dry table during a couple of rainy days; and, lastly, all of the pretty, little blanks that I have cut that will then be cleaned up and fastened to the rammed earth walls below the windows as trim. Next up, two shots of me pulling into the ranch road with the magnificent views of the big mountains to the northwest. Then, a mandala that I drew with my finger in the thick dust left on the table from all of the cut flagstones. Next, a sudden, low rainbow that sprang out of nowhere after a couple days of rain/sleet/snow. And, finally, one of my 'classic' outfits that I can be seen running around the ranch in when I walk the dogs...in my defense, I took my pants and shirt off from work and threw a tank top and shorts on without ever taking my long boot socks off. Erin usually just bursts out laughing when she sees me like this and before I know it she has saved the moment for posterity!
Take care and check out the accompanying articles about las Gorras Blancas!
https://web.archive.org/web/20100928120106/http://newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=23134
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — When Mayor Louie Trujillo learned about a proposed exhibit of religious relics in the city museum purportedly linked to a group of hooded nightriders from the late 1800s, he ...www.santafenewmexican.com
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