This is the fifth in a seven-part series of Southwestern history murals that the Gallup public schools commissioned J. R. Willis to paint through the Public Works of Art Project between 1935 and 1936—and that still hang in the Gallup High School library.
Juan de Oñate, known as the first Spanish governor of New Mexico, was notorious in his own time as a cruel tyrant. His reign was so brutal that five years after his resignation, in 1612, he was charged by the Spanish viceroy with thirty crimes and convicted of twelve. His punishment was banishment from New Mexico, four years’ exile from Mexico City, and a monetary fine (given his wealth and political connections, Oñate was able to secure a pardon from a new king in 1623).
One of the crimes for which Oñate was convicted, and the one for which he is most infamous, was excessive force against the Acoma. In 1599, Oñate put the Acoma people “on trial” for attacking a group of Spanish conquistadors and killing twelve (including Oñate’s nephew). Finding them guilty, Oñate sentenced all Acoma residents over age twelve to twenty years of servitude. Additionally, he ordered that men over twenty-five years of age have one foot cut off.
Willis’s portrayal of Oñate reveals none of his criminality or disgrace. On the contrary, for his mural, Willis adopted a long-standing convention for portraits of military commanders and national leaders (from George Washington to Napoleon Bonaparte): Oñate sits confidently atop a white horse, turned three-quarters to face the viewer. Willis further monumentalizes Oñate by choosing what is now known as El Morro National Monument as his backdrop—the colossal rock formation imbues a sense of majesty.
