Dona Ana County, NM, Catch-up

The top picture is from a recent mailing from the Dona Ana County Assessor's Office to help citizens understand their 3% increase in property taxes. Middle picture is banner in Dona Ana County Commissioners' public meeting room. Bottom picture shows the new signs going up around the county.

It continues to be entertaining to live in a county that doesn't even know where its name came from. Then the County Commissioners have been hegemonized (from 'Christian hegemony') by the evangelical Christian factions whose fears of minority citizens demanding their constitutional rights is apparent. First the commissioners added the dripping yellow cross to the county seal while still reeling from the Millennium scare of 2000. Then they lied and said the design has never been changed. Following that lie they made-up another and now claim the dripping cross represents "our sunshine."

Not to be outdone by the proliferation of the still illegal Latin crosses on all things public by the City of Las Cruces, the County has started putting the illegally modified seal on the byways to proselytize anyone who looks.

As part of the continual denial by the governments of Dona Ana County and the City of Las Cruces, the Conquistador Onate has been elevated locally to a deified position. That is the Conquistador Onate astride his horse on the seal of Dona Ana County above. The Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce goes further with its Conquistador unit that goes to ribbon cuttings. Their identification patch on the de rigueur blue blazer of the unit exhibits the profile of Onate and three yellow crosses of the Trinity. Historical note: The Conquistador's were later banned by the Spanish king due to their excesses against the Native Americans. Locally they are held up as 'heroes.'