IRON HORSE COMING IN 2024
#SummerOfTheRedWillow
“There’s an Iron Horse coming down the track and it’s bringing the people back; Rolling thunder fills the sky wipe your tears let them dry; The longest walk will reunite we’re coming together into the light; Emancipation one nation in celebration all our relations”
IRON HORSE first premiered in a PSA at the 2015 Gathering of Nations Pow Wow at the University of New Mexico arena, known as The Pit, in Albuquerque. The PSA was live-streamed on www.powwows.com.
The single and music picture will be released in 2024 during the #SummerOfTheRedWillow.
IRON HORSE was written by Robby Romero and Robert Mirabal to commemorate the name change of Kit Carson Park to Red Willow Park by the Town of Taos on June 10, 2014. This was a culturally significant moment in the history of the Town of Taos.
“Robby brought me out of the corn fields of the pueblo to join in igniting a collective fire and creating a poetic dialogue. The inevitable Kit Carson name-change provided the artistic momentum for a coming together of our music.”
COUNCIL CHANGES KIT CARSON PARK NAME TO 'RIGHT PAST WRONGS’
In an act town officials are calling a gesture of reconciliation, the Taos Town Council has changed the name of Kit Carson Memorial Park to Red Willow Park… — J.R. Logan, Taos News, June 11, 2014
“When the opportunity presented itself, I suggested that the Town Of Taos change the name of Kit Carson Park to Red Willow Park to honor the people of the Red Willow and to bring our people together. I made the suggestion to kindle a conversation about one-sided perspectives that are more often than not ‘his-story – not history’… and I’m certain the curtain is falling on the misconceptions, stereotypes, and derogatory names exploited in history books and in sports and POP cultural about Native Peoples.”
WALKING THE RED ROAD
In a 2020 interview with Lynne Robinson, writer and editor of Taos Tempo Magazine, Robby reflects on the necessity for change.
In the summer of 2014, Romero, a lifelong Taos resident, approached the Town of Taos to change the name of Kit Carson Park. Carson, a controversial figure, is not remembered fondly by the Native peoples of the region. The ensuing announcement by the Town declaring the official name change of the park sparked national and local controversy, with the Town of Taos then rescinding while still voting that the name would, in fact, be changed, but to what and when they did not know. With global protests taking up as much space as the coronavirus pandemic, Romero is once again lobbying for the name change. — Lynne Robinson, Taos Tempo Magazine, June 17, 2020
“The time of glorifying murder and massacre, slavery and white supremacy is at an end. The Town of Taos has an opportunity to, as brother Spike Lee so eloquently put it, ‘do the right thing,’ and remove Kit Carson’s name from our park. Why not call it something else — something that doesn’t bear the burden of malevolence, suffering, and sorrow for any peoples.”
