The Last Conquistador

Not long ago I had the opportunity to watch the film The Last Conquistador, a documentary created by John Valadez and Cristina Ibarra. At first I thought it would be boring — it’s about an artist, John Houser, who was commissioned by the El Paso City Council to create a monumental sculpture of the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate. The seemingly simple tale, however, was far from simple – controversy arose when the Native Americans – a people who had been oppressed, enslaved, and massacred by the Spanish (including Oñate), protested against the statue, turning the monument into a battle not only between conflicting views of the past, but one of socioeconomic classes. Houser, previously shown in the film to be rather self-centered around his art and creating a gloriously wonderful statue, finds himself confronted with the social and moral implications of his work, realizing all too late his failure to realize what his work really meant and represented. I thought that the most powerful moment in the film was the Native Americans confronting Houser — the artist, in the course of the conversation, is visibly shocked and shaken, seeming to realize for the first time the real impact of what he has done. Overall, I found the film very powerful in its execution, and clear in its message — I don’t think a Hollywood script could have told it better. The film encourages the viewer to truly think not only social issues concerning race, heritage, and political injustice, but also about the meaning and message of art and the consequences of one’s actions.