Trail Dust: Whitman had high praise for Hispanics

Marc Simmons | The New Mexican

9/5/2008 - 9/6/08

On Aug. 5, 1883, the Philadelphia Press ran this brief announcement in its pages: "Our friends at Santa Fe, New Mexico, have just finished their long drawn out anniversary of the 333rd year of the settlement of their city by the Spanish. The good, gray Walt Whitman was asked to write them a poem in commemoration but he was unable to accept the invitation."

Two years ago in this column, I wrote about the grand monthlong Tertio-Millennial Exposition held in the capital. It was designed to commemorate the "supposed" 333rd anniversary of Santa Fe's founding.

In reality, the motive for the Exposition was entirely phony, something trumped up by community leaders to lure tourists and investors from afar. Still, the event succeeded in gaining national attention and drawing large crowds.

In the planning stage, organizers had come up with the idea of inviting Whitman, the celebrated poet, to compose a poem in honor of the historic occasion. They must have thought his name would add luster to their promotional efforts.

At that time, Whitman was in fact among the best known literary figures in the country. Born into a Quaker family in 1819, he grew up in Brooklyn, giving little hint of his future fame.

His Leaves of Grass (1855) was Whitman's only major book. But it went through nine editions before his death in 1892.

In my column, I quoted from secondary sources Whitman's brief reply to the request from Santa Fe to come and deliver a poem during the Exposition. He wrote: "The invitation reached me so late that I have to decline, with sincere regret."

However, he added, "I will say a few words off hand." And he attached an essay of six substantial paragraphs under the title, "The Spanish Element in Our Nationality."

I'd seen reference to this item over the years but had never been able to turn up a copy. Just recently though, Tomás Jaehn, curator of collections at the Angélico Chávez History Library in Santa Fe, was able to locate one for me.

In reading it, I was surprised to see that Whitman had mounted a defense of Spanish conduct and character. Indeed, he declared no people "show a grander historic perspective — grander in religioness and loyalty, or for patriotism, courage, decorum, gravity, and honor."

And he went on to say that Spaniards in their history displayed no more cruelty, tyranny, or superstition than a corresponding summary of Anglo-American history. "Nay," he stated, "I think there will not be found so much."

In concluding, Whitman made this telling remark: "As to the Spanish stock of our Southwest, it is certain to me that we do not begin to appreciate the splendor and sterling value of it."

On the whole, the author praises Hispanic New Mexicans in their pioneering achievements. Yet, he speaks in flowery rhetoric, born of romantic sentiment, for there is nothing to suggest he had knowledge of the barest rudiments of New Mexico history.

I have seen no evidence that the poet ever visited New Mexico or had even read much about it. His only trip out West seems to have occurred in 1879 when he crossed the Great Plains to Colorado, riding in "a luxurious palace-car, drawn by the mighty Baldwin engine," as he described it.

On his return, he gave an interview to a St. Louis journalist extolling the beauty of the Rockies and "the untrammeled play of primitive nature" viewed from the car window. Clearly, Whitman was very much the poet and not a pioneer himself.

Nonetheless, his essay sent to Santa Fe has merit because it was an early attack on the Black Legend, the old myth created by Spain's European enemies in the 16th century when her worldwide empire was at its height.

It was grounded in Hispanophobia and in the popular belief that Spaniards were innately cruel and depraved. Whitman, as already noted, challenged that widespread depiction.

So did Professor Phillip Wayne Powell in his 1971 book Tree of Hate, Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World. With a mountain of evidence, he demolished the worn-out Leyenda Negra. Yet, traces of it linger on in our textbooks, public discourse and in conduct of foreign policy.

Long out of print, Tree of Hate will be released in a new paperback edition by The University of New Mexico Press in October. It will continue the process of clarifying Spain's colonial record beyond Walt Whitman's modest beginning.

I regret that the renowned poet was unable to attend the Tertio-Millennial Exposition. Had he appeared and delivered an original poem, it would now be remembered as a history-making event.

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.