Abbreviated as NM by ABBREVIATIONFINDER, New Mexico is the fifth largest state in the United States. Its surface is rugged, with the southern foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the north of the state (Sierra de la Sangre de Cristo), great plains to the east, and plateaus and more mountains to the south and west. The Rio Grande with its wide valley divides the state from north to south. The desert landscapes, the strange rock formations, the mountain forests and the many hot springs are surprising.
Santa Fe is the capital of the state and is located in the north. It receives snow every winter because it is at a certain height on the mountain. Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico. Las Cruces is in the south of the state, very close to the border with Texas and Mexico, it is very hot and dry in summer and mild in winter. The population there is mainly Mexican. Clovis is located in the eastern part of the state, on the Texas border, 300 kilometers from Albuquerque and 150 kilometers from Roswell. The closest airport is in Lubbock, Texas, 150 kilometers from Clovis.
History
When the first Spaniards arrived in New Mexico from what was then New Spain (Mexico), they encountered a series of tribes that shared this territory relatively peacefully. On the one hand there were the “Pueblo”, descendants of the more primitive “Anasazi”, and on the other the “Navajos” and the “Apaches”, descendants of the “Athabascos”, who had descended from what is now Canada. They also found the “Hopi”, descendants of the “Mogollón” and related to the Pueblo, in what is now Arizona. There are ruins of primitive settlements throughout the state. The [[Pueblo Indians]] lived in permanent settlements, villages built mainly of mud that reminded the Spanish of their own adobe villages. Hence the name they were given.
The first successful Spanish expedition reached New Mexico in 1598, under the command of Juan de Oñate. The capital of the new colony, Santa Fe, was founded by Pedro de Peralta in 1610, ten years before the first English settlers arrived on the shores of New England aboard the “Mayflower.” That makes Santa Fe the oldest state capital in the US The colony was settling until 1680, and after some years of special difficulties, the Pueblo Indians rebelled and expelled the Spanish to “El Paso”. New settlers, led by Diego de Vargas, arrived in 1692. This time new agreements were established with the Indians, who needed help against the looting of other nomadic Indians, the “Utes”, “Apaches” and “Comanches”, who began to arrive from the north.
The consolidation and expansion of the colony into what is now southern Colorado and eastern Arizona continued for the next two centuries, until in 1824 it became part of the new Mexican Republic, after its independence from Spain. Membership in Mexico was short. In 1846 the American General Stephen W. Kearney occupied these lands by force and in 1848 With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, New Mexico definitively became US territory. General Kearney promised to respect the New-Mexican language and customs, however with the arrival of the Anglo-Americans came the corruption and legal traps that deprived many New Mexicans of property rights to their lands. Also then began the slow, but sure, erosion of the majority language of New Mexicans of the 19th century and part of the 20th: Spanish.
New Mexico did not become a full member of the Union until 1912, the year of its declaration as a state and the approval of its constitution. The constitution of this state offers peculiarities that make it different from those of the rest of the states. In particular in aspects related to respect for the languages of the residents of the state and the educational system. This is the only constitutionally bilingual state, albeit to a limited extent, in the US.
All the elements of its history and its geography make this state today an original mixture and very different from the rest of the US The landscape and the climate, the traditional and now revalued adobe architecture, the family traditions, the cuisine and other cultural manifestations, have attracted over the last decades artists, writers, intellectuals, ” hippies ” and even professionals of alternative medicine who have contributed even more to this state so rich in culture and history. Without forgetting that it is also the poorest state in the country, we can say that these are the peculiarities that define the New Mexico of 2005.
- CountryAAH: Offers a full list of cities and towns in New Mexico, together with postal codes for each of them, and including capital city of New Mexico.
Culture
New Mexico is an art mecca for Americans, in this state you can enjoy history, performing and visual arts. Native Americans expressed themselves in petroglyphs on the rocks, Spanish and Mexican settlers created their own Hispanic style. Santa Fe and Taos have schools and showrooms of important world-renowned artists such as the paintings of the painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Santa Fe is the cultural and administrative capital of the state of New Mexico where you can find a museum offer, the expression of dance, theater and opera, important galleries and exhibitions of great painters, furniture stores of Spanish rustic art, jewelry stores, bookstores and exhibition of music, film and theater festivals.
