In 1988, the El Paso, Texas, city council accepted a proposal to build twelve statues of historically important individuals as part of a downtown revitalization initiative. Juan de Onate was selected as the centerpiece statue of the XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest. The decision to honor the Spanish colonizer triggered a local controversy about the nature and function of public art in shaping community identity. Nonetheless, in hopes of boosting tourism, city leaders funded construction of the statue and it was installed in 2006. Using the concepts of hegemony and fantasy heritage to analyze the debate, we argue that the Onate statue promotes the Hispanic framing of the city's history at the expense of its Mexican past and continues the historic exclusion of Chicanos from public space.