Accent mark in official Santa Fe seal in wrong spot

SANTA FE, N.M. — An accent mark on the official seal of the capital city of the nation's most Hispanic state is in the wrong spot.

The misplaced accent mark at the top of the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico's website was recently spotted by a reporter who uses an accent in his name, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.

On the website, the seal uses the official's name of the city: La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís, or Santa Fe for short.

But the seal on the city’s website puts the accent mark over the first “s” in Asís instead of over the “i.”

Even Mayor Alan Webber, who is originally from St. Louis, knows the accent mark over the “s” is no bueno.

“It is always over a vowel; it is never over a consonant,” Webber said. “Yes, I learned that from my Spanish teacher.”

Santa Fe is one of the oldest continual settlements in the U.S. and has a long history with Hispanics.

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This version has been corrected by removing a reference to the mayor erroneously calling the misplaced accent a tilde, as tilde in Spanish can refer to accents or other marks.

The Associated Press