Forum Post: (Un)Occupy Albuquerque - solidarity!

Dear Friends, Here in New Mexico, we've struggled with the word "occupy" in front of our homeland as that is a painful reality for us. We just changed our name to (Un)Occupy Albuquerque.

New Mexico has a long history of resistance, from the pueblo revolt that drove out the Spanish conquistadors and kept intact our 22 tribes on their original land, to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which kept our constitution, birth certificates, etc in both Spanish and English when the US captured our lands. We've fought against gentrification by keeping our traditional water system (acequia) in place despite developers that want to put our water into grass lawns and swimming pools and destroy water rights for traditional peoples.

We've changed our name to (Un)Occupy Albuquerque after many days of discussions and listening to the pain of systemic oppression from the native people who are part of the movement.

For some people there is anger about the name change but we hope you at OWS will support the principle of it. Thanks!