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New Mexican Governor Bill Richardson made his formal presidential campaign announcement this week. He made the announcement in California, about which everyone knows everything, but Richardson is actually from a state called New Mexico, about which you may know very little.
Here are ten significant things about New Mexico. Part of understanding the state is that some things that don't seem significant to you are quite important to the residents of the Land of Enchantment.
1. Pluto is still a planet in New Mexico.
Clyde Tombaugh, while gazing through a telescope in the southern New Mexico city of Las Cruces, discovered the ninth planet in 1930. When Pluto was recently demoted to planetoid, New Mexicans took it personally! Gov. Richardson and the Legislature officially reinstated Pluto as a planet when viewed from within the boundaries of the State of New Mexico. Who knew that Pluto could pack so much pre-presidential power?
2. Red or Blue State? Nah. Red or Green!
Forget the standard political demographics and things like mixing religion with politics. In New Mexico, Christmas is celebrated every day - in fact, several times a day - in the halls of government, city plazas, schools, and people's homes. What am I talking about? "Red or Green?" - the official New Mexico State Question, the answer to which has recently been legislated to be: "Christmas," meaning both, please.
Chile has been an important staple and source of pride going back hundreds of New Mexican years. The most well-known chiles come from the town of Hatch (everyone knows that!), where the long, slender spicy vegetables are harvested and celebrated. Every food in New Mexico comes smothered in chile. If Richardson becomes President, the White House Chef had better have this down!
3. Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, is about to celebrate its 400th anniversary.
The Spanish explorer Coronado encountered the New Mexican area Native Americans in 1540, and it's been downhill for the Native Americans ever since. There are still many pueblos and Native Americans residing in reservations in New Mexico, where many of the old traditions are still kept including the making of beautiful jewelry and baking of breads in earthen ovens called hondos. But the most lively new tradition is running casinos, most of which are located in the corridor between Albuquerque and Taos.
4. Space has a place in New Mexico!
If we ever launch a nuclear weapon, you can thank the scientists at Los Alamos Labs, who developed the technology back in World War II. Around the same time, another group was playing around with their own technology in a place called Roswell in the south central portion of the state. Too bad they crashed! This year marks the 60th anniversary of the most well-known UFO event in history, the infamous "Crash at Roswell." Well, it didn't actually crash in town. According to news stories at the time, the flying saucer was struck by lightening and came down in a rancher's field north and west of Roswell. Modern day off-world enthusiasts are trying to call ET back home. The Church of Scientology has carved a huge secretive UFO landing pad into the top of a mesa east of Las Vegas, New Mexico.
The future of civilian spacequest belongs to New Mexico, too. Spaceport America recently shot the ashes of James "Scotty" Doohan, the famous Star Trek engineer, into space. After they beamed Scotty up, he beamed himself back down to New Mexico, his remains landing in the rough almost-alien terrain of White Sands Missile Range.
5. New Mexico is not just a desert.
Large parts of New Mexico certainly are desert, but equally large parts are grasslands, prairies, and incredibly beautiful pinon-covered mountains with some of the best skiing in the country. The Rio Grande flows through all of it - from the Colorado border to Mexico. New Mexico also has more volcanic features and dormant volcanoes than any other state outside of Hawaii.
By the way, before the Rocky Mountains had that name, they were called the Sangre de Christos - "Blood of Christ" mountains, and that's what they're called in New Mexico today.
6. Get your kicks on Route 66, but there's plenty a tale of the Old Santa Fe Trail.
Route 66 was the first interstate highway to connect the east with the west. You can cruise the route and see vintage diners, teepee motels, ancient gas stations, and roadside Americana. But way before Jack Kerouac traveled down this famous road, Kit Carson and others travelled west on
