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Tensions rose last Friday and over the weekend after a group of anonymous Black Santa Feans released a statement of admonishment regarding mayoral candidate Oscar Rodriguez (Lipan Apache) using the N-word during an Oct. 6 appearance at a PechaKucha Night event hosted by local nonprofit Creative Santa Fe.
In short, PechaKucha aims to celebrate “the art of concise and fast-paced storytelling,” according to the Creative Santa Fe website, and candidates in November’s race for mayor took part to tell their stories, including Michael Garcia, Justin Greene, Letitia Montoya, Tarin Nix, Jeanne O'Dean, Ronald Trujillo, Joanne Vigil Coppler and Rodriguez.
Rodriguez (whose talk can be seen through this YouTube link roughly 1 hour and 40 minutes in) used the N-word in recounting a story about a racist remark from a teacher during his senior year in high school. His talk was otherwise an uplifting tale of an Indigenous man navigating adversity and racism to become a highly educated mayoral hopeful.
Still, some Black Santa Feans were none too pleased by Rodriguez using the N-word, regardless of context. Here’s the statement from the coalition in full:
During a recent public PechaKucha presentation hosted by Creative Santa Fe, mayoral candidate Oscar Rodriguez said a racial slur—the “N word”—in his remarks. Rather than enhancing his presentation, the use of this word caused harm, distress, and retraumatization for Black residents of Santa Fe who were in attendance. It should never have Occurred.
To say that members of the Black community are disappointed by the use of this deeply derogatory term in a public forum is an understatement. Its use is unacceptable under any circumstance, and is especially troubling coming from someone seeking the highest elected office in the city of Santa Fe.
The choice to use the entire n-word to illustrate the way Mr. Rodriguez was harmed by white supremacy was a mistake. He could have said “N-word,” and the impact on the Black people in the room would have been softened. By choosing to say the slur in a predominantly non-Black audience, he centered his need to prove his merit and worthiness at the expense of his Black constituents. This amplified the erasure Black New Mexicans experience daily and turned the event into a space that was not safe for us.
While Santa Fe’s Black population is small, the emotional and psychological impact of this incident is profound. Those present were left saddened, disoriented, and disheartened that such language could be used publicly and without immediate condemnation.
A response from Mr. Rodriguez was later issued to his campaign supporters and it fails to directly address the harm caused to the Black community or to acknowledge the word’s long and painful history as a tool of dehumanization against Black people.
Members of the Black community are calling for a public apology from Mr. Rodriguez, Creative Santa Fe, the event host, and from event sponsors for the lack of any immediate public acknowledgment or corrective action that ensures such egregious incidents do not occur again.
This moment demands transparency, accountability, and tangible steps toward repair. The Black community and the broader Santa Fe public deserve a response that demonstrates integrity, responsibility, and a genuine commitment to rebuilding trust.
— A coalition of concerned Black Santa Feans
SFR spoke with a number of locals who helped draft that statement, though none wished to speak publicly or on the record for fear of retaliation. The response to which their complaint refers came from Rodriguez following the PechaKucha speaking event:
At a recent community event, I shared a deeply personal story from my childhood—a moment when a teacher used a racial slur against me on my first day of honors math. In telling that story, I repeated the word as it was said to me. As I told the story and shared, I thought I would find some healing, some closure, in publicly sharing this very traumatic experience.
Whatever cathartic feeling I may have had was fleeting. I know the power of that wicked word and the hurt it can cause. Hearing it said out loud not only re-traumatized me but deepened the pain because it hurt others as well. I deeply regret that in telling my story, I released that word and brought others into my trauma. For that, I am deeply sorry.
My intention was never to wound, but to speak truthfully about the racism I experienced and how it shaped my lifelong belief in the dignity and worth of every person. I used that word to share the weight of that trauma — a word that was used against me and my siblings many times growing up. I now recognize that even in recounting injustice, that word carries deep hurt and history. I understand now that no one should say it.
As a Native American—someone who has felt the sting of discrimination—I understand the power of language and the importance of respect. That experience fuels my commitment to lead with empathy and to build a city where every person—no matter their race, background, or story — feels seen, respected, and valued.
Sincerely,
Oscar Rodríguez
Rodriguez, however, told SFR on Friday evening that he still believes he was justified in using the N-word in the specific context of recounting his story.
“I agree with them that nobody should use that word,” Rodriguez said, “but my tribe…I—we—were called this word repeatedly growing up. I can assure you it was traumatizing to hear it, and I heard it many times. I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t enjoy it, it was never told to me as a joke, it was always hurtful.”
Rodriguez also said that he had planned to use the N-word in full during the process by which he created his segment of the talk. Speakers who take part in PechaKucha events receive support from Creative Santa Fe in crafting their presentations, and Rodriguez told SFR that his took roughly a month to put together. In other words, his use of the word was scripted well beforehand, and not a heat-of-the-moment usage.
“We do help our presenter craft their story, but at the end of the day it’s not about approval,” Creative Santa Fe Executive Director Sorakamol Prapasiri told SFR last week. “‘Approval’ means the presenter is beholden to us under some sort of legal contract; we know this was said to him, and it was part of his story—we shape it, we help them, they own the story they’re going to tell.”
Prapasiri also told SFR that Rodriguez did not use the N-word during a rehearsal for the event.
“Not in the dress rehearsal, no,” Rodriguez later told SFR, but the full word was in the script. "I just don’t believe there was another way to convey the shock and trauma of the moment. That would be inauthentic, wouldn’t it? I could have been just like everyone else and kept it to myself, and I decided not to. I was invited to share the experience—that was the mission, the assignment. I have apologized, I put that in writing, and for me to somehow go beyond that? I would be saying, ‘I’m sorry I’m a Native who went through this, I’ll now be quiet about it.’”
Creative Santa Fe’s Prapasiri told SFR the nonprofit is now “in learning mode” following the statement from Black Santa Feans.
“I want to acknowledge this moment when community members have reached out and raised their hands and said they’ve been injured by this,” she said. “I think this is a very important moment in our community as it is on a larger, national scale. When we have so many different truths we’re trying to honor and uphold with each other, it’s important for us to be able to navigate these truths side-by-side.”
Prapasiri added that neither she nor Creative Santa Fe wishes to be the arbiters of what words people can and can’t use.
“My big concern is that we’re not retraumatizing the Indigenous community that has also been enslaved, that is another oppressed group—to say ‘you are not allowed to say this word,’ is not a position I want to be in to decide," she said. "I’m in listening mode. We are trying to understand what meaningful reparation would look like.”
For some Black Santa Feans, Rodriguez’s story is his own, N-word and all.
“I was born and raised in East Africa—Burundi and Rwanda, and knowing that PechaKucka gives a platform to anyone who has a story to tell and knowing Creative Santa Fe heard Oscar’s story and decided it needed to be told—of course I was not offended,” Santa Fe’s Nellie-Joy Irakoze, who attended PechaKucha, told SFR on Monday afternoon. “That’s his own story to share, and what I disliked was his being questioned or putting a bandage on it like he should not tell his story. That’s just wrong. I was shocked that someone went on and sent an email saying the whole Black community agreed, because no one reached out to me or to friends of mine. Someone went in and just decided that was my case.”
Irakoze said she hadn’t heard the N-word in some time, and though it was certainly intense to hear Rodriguez use it in the moment, she did not take offense.
“When I heard it I was like, I don’t recall the last time I heard that word,” Irakoze said, “but it was a long time ago. Another woman, a candidate, said the word ‘retarded’ that night, and I realized I hadn’t heard that word in a long time, either, but I realized she was given the space to speak and be vulnerable. I went to hear each candidate’s story. Oscar was not heard even though that was his experience, and his siblings’.”
Santa Fe NAACP President Simesha McEachern disagrees with that line of thought.
"I think, truthfully, from my perspective, I feel like anyone who uses that word in public knows the context of violence and hatred behind it, and I feel that if he was traumatized by that, how does he expect the Black people in our community to feel about it?" McEachern said. "Clearly, it was not something someone was being kind about, and there are reasons we don't go into gross detail of people's personal experiences, and we give them a warning, or at least use speech that is acceptable."
I would not give details publicly about an assault against me, and no one or two Black people you speak to...it doesn't make it OK—that is a violent word, so tell your story, by all means, but telling your story does not give you the right to bleed on other people.
Accordino McEachern, the public nature of the event should have required a warning for the audience, especially, she adds, because the majority of the audience was not Black.
"It is OK to say 'I had this experience,' and to express how that felt for you, but if it was traumatizing for him, he has to know that hearing that word in public is traumatizing for the people, even if they don't process it that way immediately," she said. "There is no pass. That's painful. I would not give details publicly about an assault against me, and no one or two Black people you speak to...it doesn't make it OK—that is a violent word, so tell your story, by all means, but telling your story does not give you the right to bleed on other people."
McEachern says that had Rodriguez used the term "the N-word," his point would have been just as impactful.
"Let me fill in that blank," she said.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, said that he’s learned a lot from the situation and will not make the same mistake again.
“Look, I regret that it hurt people, of course I do, but how else could I tell that story?” he told SFR. “I just didn’t know how else to tell that story, and I’m kind of trapped in this situation. After talking to African American friends and acquaintances and scholars…we talked through that, they said ‘you’re running for mayor, you want to run a city, you have to grow more and go further.' It was a learning experience. It was vital for people to understand this word was also used against Natives. At the same time I feel my own pain, I need to feel other people’s pain, too—not be inauthentic, but to say I’m sorry I hurt you.”
Early voting for the Santa Fe municipal election began last week at the County Clerk's Office, and more sites will open up beginning Saturday, Oct. 18. Early voting ends Saturday, Nov. 1, and the final day to cast a ballot falls on Tuesday, Nov. 4. For a list of early voting locations and election day polling places, click here.
