Thoughts on the passing of Emilio Naranjo

New Mexico was an exciting place in the late 1960’s and 1970’s and nowhere was more exciting than Rio Arriba County. Rio Arriba was the last county in the state to retain a strong and active third party, El Partido de La Raza Unida, birthed out of Chicano political activism that had risen from the civil rights and land grant movements. The momentous Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid of 1967 had been a high or low point of this movement, depending on the differing political perspectives dividing the county.

Beginning 1968, many organizations were formed in Tierra Amarilla; La Cooperativa agricultural co-op, La Clinica del Pueblo de Rio Arriba, and El Taller Grafico silkscreen art project to name just a few. While a number of the leaders and workers in these projects were political activists registered in La Raza Unida party, most were not party members.

These self-help community operated programs ran afoul of the patron system of Rio Arriba County, ruled by the iron hand of Emilio Naranjo. In those days, jobs and funding came through Naranjo and before long, the iron fist slammed down on the community activists.

Despite warm farewells to Naranjo, in its heyday this was not a benign system. Its strength came from fear, abuse of power and threats against any perceived enemies of the status quo. False arrests, home searches, an enemies list, planting drugs, and civil rights violations galore maintained the power of the patron.

A brave group of lawyers lead by Richard Rosenstock and Bob Rothstein took on this system in the courts. Our local newspaper, the Rio Grande Sun kept the pressure on local government then as it still does today.

1982 was a watershed year in the battle between the community and Naranjo. La Raza Unida ran a full slate of candidates and although none won, many did very well. I was the candidate for County Treasurer and in June of that year I was hired as Executive Director of La Clinica del Pueblo.

These were heady days, there was hope in the air that the patronage system would be broken at last. Elected in November 1982 was a group that had run against the patron system and because of this they had been supported by La Raza Unida. Bill Richardson was elected the first representative of the new 3rd congressional district, former Attorney General Toney Anaya was elected Governor and former Attorney General Jeff Bingaman won his first term in the US Senate.

Although it took a number of years, more than five federal First Amendment lawsuits were settled or won by members of the community against Naranjo and Rio Arriba County. The federal courts agreed that county jobs, funding and services had been doled out to political supporters and illegally withheld from political opponents. Settling these lawsuits was so expensive that the State of New Mexico Risk Management refused to insure the county and the county had to buy its insurance in the private market.

In 1984, La Raza Unida voted to disband and encouraged its members to register as Democrats to support the presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson. Jackson did quite well in the New Mexico primary and Linda Pedro, La Raza Unida activist, addressed the Democratic Convention in San Francisco. The community activists formed the Rio Arriba Democrats for Progress.

Once Naranjo lost several lawsuits to La Clinica and some of its Board and staff, fences were mended and as state Senator and County Manager he began to provide support to the clinic, and in particular its critically important ambulance service. The relationship had changed.

Naranjo lost his senate seat in a three way Democratic primary in 1996 against Arthur Rodarte, former County Commissioner, and me, Carol Miller, one of the community activists. I received 13% of the vote district wide, winning 68% of the vote of the Los Alamos precincts. Naranjo won Rio Arriba as always, although Rodarte ended up winning the seat by a handful of votes.

Emilio Naranjo had lost his first election and retired from politics.

The final chapter of this story is the primary election of 2006. Emilio Naranjo and I both endorsed Antonio J. Manzanares for Magistrate Judge. Six months later in a gas station in Santa Fe, someone came up to me very excited to shake my hand. He told me he never thought he would live to see the day when Emilio and I were on the same side.

This story would have had a very different ending if people had not stood up for their rights and fought long and hard for justice. The odds seemed overwhelming in the beginning and the penalties were serious. Because of people working together and defeating el patron the story has a happy ending but we must always remember the sad beginning and long awful middle of the story where real people suffered needlessly for the sake of one person maintaining absolute political power over an entire county.

As they eulogize Emilio Naranjo, former state Attorney Generals and other political leaders should not let history be whitewashed. The consistent delivery of Rio Arriba votes, party loyalty and dues paid to el patron should not override respect for the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.

Emilio, you will be missed for showing grace in defeat. For you, once it was over, it was over and you have my respect for that.