Two Queens

What could be more different than these two queens? One, in advanced old age with grey curls under the crown in this photo from The New Yorker; the other, young and beautiful, chosen as the 2018 queen of the Santa Fe Fiesta. The 2022 Fiesta is being celebrated here this weekend, continuing a tradition more than 300 years old. The subject of much controversy recently, this fiesta celebrates the so-called “bloodless” reconquest of this territory with the re-entrance of the Spaniards, dispelled to Mexico by the Pueblo Revolt in 1680.

The British monarchy is much older, but it, too, was established through conquest by the Normans in 1066. It may be that an abiding system of governance and a symbolic head can only be established through conquest, implying the bending or breaking of the will of the people. The greatness of Queen Elizabeth II as a symbol of devotion and continuity is made clearer and more relevant with her death.

I find myself deeply moved by her death. When she mounted the throne at age 25, she vowed to devote her life to the service of what was then the British Empire. She may have had her secret doubts and hesitations, but they were never a part of her official role. Certainly she had many ideas and opinions she always firmly repressed. Even her clothes, the pastel suits, matching hats, purses and shoes were probably not her individual choice. As Phyllis Chesler writes in her blog, these clothes influenced what women in this country with few means but a strong desire to look respectable chose for the dress-up occasions.

This may seem trivial. It is not. Authority always requires a disguising of individual characteristics, whether of clothes or opinions, in order to govern. In this country, we’ve seen how the individualism of our leaders or would-be leaders has been picked apart and used to drag them down. This disintegration of the support required to exercise authority reached its nadir with Hilary Clinton’s pantsuits. Pick, pick, and more pick, a far easier form of criticism than engaging with her ideas.

How impossible Queen Elizabeth’s role would have been in this age of endless scrutiny—even in Britain—if she had worn distinctive clothes, or tried to express her individual opinions.

The gravity of her face when she assumed the throne at 25 signaled that she knew her life as a private woman was now over. All great leaders have been required to make this sacrifice which may be why the world is short on them. Too great a sacrifice, it seems, for most individuals to make, no matter how important the role.

As the monarchy descends through the generations, the collapse of the ideal of self-sacrifice becomes apparent in the aberrant behavior of the Queen’s family.

But—we love aberrant behavior, even when it threatens the social fabric! Here in the Southwest, the image of the cowboy still dominates our imagination: “Montana was made for the wild man, the pagan, the Sioux and the Crow…” And my political point of view, which is strongly feminist as it has been since the 1970’s, also enshrines our absolute freedom to make our own choices in every aspect of personal and public life.

And so—anarchy? Queen Elizabeth, if she had ever expressed an opinion on the subject, might have said so.

So does the Fiesta Queen face the same issue? Well, she’s only queen for a year, but as part of the highly conservative and structured Hispanic community here, she has her work laid out for her—public appearances at schools, speeches in Spanish, and a promise not to marry during her reign.

These rules depend on an absolute obedience to the mores of her community.

There is comfort in conformity as well as endless frustrations and sacrifices. Even death has a role as an appropriate ending to all exercise of duty. As Queen Elizabeth said a few years ago when considering the passing of power to her son, “In the fullness of time…”

Now there will be grousing during the ten days of her funeral, replete with ancient ceremonies… It’s all irrelevant, and so forth. But as many know here and elsewhere, it is only irrelevant to those of us—and I am among them—who prize our individual freedom more than the welfare of a family, a group, a state or a country.

And we are paying the price.

In Writing Santa Fe Phyllis Chesler