The monument is currently in storage and civic institutions purportedly have plans to put it back up at a later date. 

In 1991 a monument dedicated to Spanish conquistador Juan de Onate, who was infamously known for his cruel and brutal treatment of the Acoma Pueblo people, was erected in Alcalde, New Mexico. The monument was controversial from the time it was built: the Native American people living in the state of New Mexico did not want an effigy of this genocidal colonizer to be valorized and acting as a reminder of the atrocities committed against them. 

In December 1997--shortly before the 400-year anniversary of the invasion of the Spanish colonizers--the Juan de Onate monument was defaced with the removal of the statue’s right foot. A note was left behind saying “fair is fair.” This strategic act of defacement was commemorating what Onate was known for: cutting off the feet of Native American men as both punishment and deterrent for escaping his forced labor. The foot was later recast and replaced. 

The visitor center where this monument once stood was named “The Onate Monument and Visitor Center” until 2017 when it became the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Center. That same year the monument was defaced again, this time with the right foot painted red and a note left behind saying “Remember 1680”--a reference to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 where the Native Americans drove out the Spanish from the region.