Editorials

By Michael Russell

TheSecondDeclaration.org

Had Jackson Browne an American president in mind when he musically asked in 1977, "Are you there for the pretender?" 77 million American voters answered almost 50 years later, "Yes."

On 20 January 2025, Donald Trump's role in enabling what will likely be the final stage of the unfounding of America was officially given the go-ahead. The Perpetual Political Pendulum, now in its eighteenth Right-to-Left-and-back-again cycle, can at last soon settle where it was always meant to settle: over the abyss of global totalitarianism. As future history will prove, this destination has long been the actual promise of America's imposed-and-accepted two-party political construct, the not-accidental result of an increasingly less-free citizenry choosing, in understandable self-defense, the lesser of increasingly hapless, hypocritical, and corrupt political offerings.

By Ruben Leyva

The 1965 book New Mexico Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary, edited by T.M. Pearce, acknowledges Mangas was the homeland of the Apache leader Mangas Coloradas, born into the Bedonkohe band of Chiricahua. Pearce suggests that naming the Mangas, New Mexico community, was likely not commemorative. However, Pearce was mistaken. This small community, which some now regard as a ghost town, had many reasons to honor Mangas Coloradas. Unlike Pearce, Robert Julyan's book The Place Names of New Mexico provides a more in-depth examination of Mangas, stating, "MANGAS (Catron; settlement; 16 miles southeast of Quemado, on Mangas Creek; Post Office as Pinoville 1905-09, as Mangas 1909-1943, mail to Datil)." Though Julyan relates to 'manga' as the Spanish word to mean 'fringe of land,' the more common translation of the word is 'sleeve.' Julyan goes on to write, "...this tiny inhabited settlement, as well as Mangas Creek and Mangas Mountain, [located] 7 miles to the south on the Continental Divide, is more likely named after Mangas Coloradas, 'red sleeves,' [the] head of the Warm Springs Apache whose territory included this region and who played a prominent role in its history." Before being called Mangas, this community was known as Pinoville, probably named after a family with the surname Pino. José María Baca (Baca Spring is 6 miles southeast of the village), along with members of the Leyva family and an American named Thompson, were among the settlement's first residents.

By Paul J. Gessing

According to the latest budget analyses from the Legislature, New Mexico policymakers have nearly $900 million in "new" money available as the session begins in Santa Fe. This comes on top of massive surpluses in recent years which the Legislature has largely spent or used to bolster the State's already prodigious sovereign wealth funds which now total $58 billion.

In many states across the nation policymakers of both parties would be fighting to see who can come up with the best tax cut or rebate plan. Sadly, this November, New Mexico's voters again chose to elect the most left-wing people on the ballot.

The Untapped Power of the Voters Voice
By Jodi Hendricks, New Mexico Family Action Movement
January 10, 2025

For many New Mexicans, the annual Legislative Session can feel distant and disconnected. Local government processes can seem vague and inaccessible, leaving you feeling powerless and unsure of how to engage with decisions that impact your daily life. This doesn't have to be the case. With the next 60-day session starting on January 21st, you have more power than you might think to follow the progress of bills and even influence which ones get passed.

By Ruben Leyva

On February 6, 1691, Fray Marcos de Loyola, living in Chinapa near present-day Arizpe, Sonora, wrote a letter appealing for help from the Governor of Nuevo Mexico, Diego de Vargas. Fray Loyola expressed concerns about hostile Native Americans troubling the settlement. There is evidence of non-Apachean hunter-gatherers in the Southwest who were allied with the Apache. Loyola was knowledgeable about the political structures of the Native tribes existing on both sides of the contemporary U.S.-Mexican border, from east of El Paso to southeastern Arizona.

My journey is similar to many other New Mexicans, in that it took a lot of hard work, hope, resilience, community, and prayer to keep pushing forward to work towards something better for me and my family. Dreams were the hope that helped drive the determination to keep pushing forward, but survival was always at the forefront of every decision and job I undertook. Financial struggle, living paycheck-to-paycheck to make ends meet — a typical New Mexico story. Add limited resources, knowledge and opportunity, and you have an equation for failure or extreme disappointment. Unless you have a strong mental base, family/community network, extreme work ethic, and people that are willing to pour into you, it is really hard to change the outcomes of generational poverty.

The recent Hulu docuseries “Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae (Pictou Aquash)," which chronicles the work of a Canadian-born Mi’kmaq activist in the Indian Movement of the 1970s, reminded me of my Apache research. Anna (Annie) Mae, who was killed at the age of 30, said, “I’m not going to stop fighting for my country until I die, and then my kids will take over.” My family had a similar saying, “We would rather die here than live where we do not belong.”

I do not wish to ignite or revive the violence associated with the Movement, nor do I seek to establish a new school of thought or ‘ism.’ Instead, I aim to introduce the reader to the resilience of Indigenous Peoples. Annie Mae’s dedication parallels my people’s fight for tribal recognition by the United States. It is essential to understand that the struggle for sovereignty is not a pursuit of dependency but rather a battle against erasure—deeply rooted in identity, self-determination, and honoring historical agreements.