This is really part of the United States, and has been since 1846, though the Santa Fe trail, from 1821, has provided Anglo influence since that time. Explanation: though the English-speaking world has historically identified cultures by the color of the skin, the local Spanish culture has been identified by the language in the home, so, if you speak English in the home, you are Anglo as in Anglo-Saxon. There are eight languages taught in various schools in New Mexico, five pueblo, Athabaskan for the Navajo and Apache, Spanish and English. We who are English speakers are the newcomers, which requires our respect for the older cultures.
Speaking of newcomers, the oldest Paleo-Indian sites recognized in the Western hemisphere were first identified here, dating from 21,000 to 23,000 years before the present. Corn has been farmed in New Mexico for at least the last 1600 years. Two of the oldest towns in the United States, Acoma and Taos, both date from before 1350, with the same people living there ever since. Coronado spent two years on the westside of Albuquerque 67 years before Jamestown was founded.
With this combination of cultures and languages, and no ethnic group reaching 50 % of the population, we have had to learn respect for all the cultures present in the state. I find this mixture both educational and enjoyable.
We are also religiously diverse. All of the 19 pueblos have preserved religious traditions for hundreds of years. The Navajo sand painting may have come from Asia, there is a strong historical Jewish element from forced conversion by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 in Spain, influencing the Catholic community. And, of course, protestant. We also have the most photogenic mosque in the western hemisphere above Abiquiu, the national center of the Sikh religion in Espanola, Tibetan Buddhist stupas in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, and a strong “hippie” new age tradition in parts of the state. The one major religious pilgrimage site in the US is the Good Friday trip to Chimayo. Respect for all of these traditions is part of the fabric of New Mexico
Again, Welcome to New Mexico!
Bibliography
PBS: NOVA: Season 49 – “Ice Age Footprints”
Chavez, Fray Angelico: “My Penitente Land”
Cook, Mary. J. “Dona Tules”
Sides, Hampton “Blood and Thunder, an Epic of the American West”
Phillips, David A Jr. “Prehistory and History of the Upper Gila River, Arizona and New Mexico, P. 25
Mike Cunico statement, Raton, NM 1972
Fellow student class presentation, NMSU, 1963
Author is a Charter Member, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association, 2008