Santa Fe looks like no other American capital: no skyscrapers, but adobe, red earth, Pueblo, Spanish and Mexican influences. With reason: it is the oldest capital in the country. The Spanish founded it around 1610, and the Palace of the Governors lining its plaza is the oldest public building still in use in the United States.
That antiquity came at a price. In 1680, the Pueblo peoples, led by a leader named Po'pay, rose against Spanish rule, drove the colonists out of Santa Fe, and held the city for twelve years before the reconquest of 1692. Few American places carry so vivid a Native memory.
No Native symbol here, but the arms of the crown that took the city, lost it, then took it back. A Native symbol at the heart of the flag of a city that was taken and retaken.
It flies in the golden light of the country's highest capital, above a city where history is never behind you, but all around.