Bienvenido a Nuevo México

tanjabrittonwriter 42 Comments

Let me take you briefly back to San Luis in southcentral Colorado, the state’s oldest continually inhabited town and a stop en route to Taos, New Mexico, during our April road trip. After exploring the Stations of the Cross Shrine, we continued our drive south on Colorado Highway 159, which turns into New Mexico Highway 552 at the interstate line. It doesn’t matter how many times we have crossed this invisible border, we always stop to take a photo of the sign welcoming us to New Mexico, the “Land of Enchantment,” with its cheerful yellow color and red-hot chili peppers.

Yellow and red are also the colors represented on New Mexico’s fine-looking and rich-with-symbolism flag. Yellow and red were the colors of the Spanish Empire which famously established New Spain in the New World after the 1521 conquest of the Aztec Empire. Nuevo México was one of New Spain’s kingdoms and its name has been in existence since the 16th century. When Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821, New Mexico lay in the territory of that new nation. Much of its land was coveted by the United States which aspired to become a transcontinental power, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. For that reason, in 1846 the US military invaded contested border land and when Mexico predictably defended what it considered its own, the US declared war, occupied New Mexico, and subsequently established the “provisional government of New Mexico.” This lasted until 1850, even beyond the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War.

1850 saw the creation of the US Territory of New Mexico (and, incidentally, that of Utah Territory also). New Mexico had hoped to be admitted as a full-fledged state and organizers had drafted a constitution that prohibited slavery. But Congress, in the “Compromise of 1850,” which included the infamous and shameful “Fugitive Slave Act,” kowtowed to pro-slavery southern states and kicked the issue down the road.

New Mexico would not become a state until January 6, 1912 (the 47th admitted to the Union), and its attractive state flag did not come into being until 1925. The flag alludes to its long Hispano and even longer Indigenous history with the red sun of the Zia people, one of New Mexico’s many pueblo nations, shining in the center of the flag’s yellow field, thereby also representing the aforementioned colors of the Spanish Empire.

The sun with its rays radiating into four directions (four being a “sacred” number for the Zia) is replete with symbolism (I have copied the following verbatim from a Wikipedia article):

According to Zia understanding, the number four is embodied in:

  • the four points of the compass (north, south, east, and west)
  • the four seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn, and winter)
  • the four periods of each day (morning, noon, evening, and night)
  • the four seasons of life (childhood, youth, middle years, and old age)
  • the four sacred obligations one must develop (a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of others).

As an aside, don’t you just love researching information and falling down a rabbit hole in the process? Wikipedia (among other websites) has a lot of fascinating information about flags and their meanings, much of which was new to me. The New Mexico flag is one of only four in the US without the color blue (the other three being Alabama, California, and Maryland). New Mexico is one of only two states that honors its Native heritage on its flag, apart from Oklahoma’s, which features a buffalo skin shield overlaid with seven eagle feathers. There is even a fancy term for the study of flags, “vexillology,” which is derived from the Latin vexillum, for “flag,” via velum, which means “sail.”

With this vexillological detour out of the way, we will finally arrive in Taos, but my circuitous route took so long that we will visit there another day.

42 thoughts on “Bienvenido a Nuevo México”

  3. I did not know there was a word for interest in flags! Car license plates are fun to spot. We get everything from Mexican to Alaskan down here. Every so often I see a New Mexico plate.

    It is so easy to get lost down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and yet fun!

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  5. So I guess this post makes you an honorary vexillologist. Long may your banner wave! New Mexico’s flag has always struck me as so cheerful, just like its license plates. Like you, I enjoy it when one source of information leads to another, and then another, etc.

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    • Thank you, Steve. The internet has given us so much enthralling information, but, as we know, not all of it correct. And it’s easy to waste one’s life online, so trying to find a balance is important.

      The colors of the N.M. flag as well as the symbolism of the Zia sun are very appealing. I wish more of us tried to live up to the four sacred obligations.

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  7. I didn’t know that word–vexillologist–so thank you for that. I’ve always liked NM’s flag. Headed to Santa Fe in just a few weeks; it’s become a summer tradition for us. Love the state, the people, the hikes, the food! Oh yeah, and that stunning New Mexico sky!

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    • I also love learning new words, Tina, and that’s a good one. 😊

      How exciting for you to have a trip to Santa Fe to look forward to, I hope you will have a wonderful stay. We have talked about moving to N.M. a few times, as we also love the land, people, and food, but it’s a big decision. Time will tell.

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      • Oh, we’ve talked about moving there too! I found a house last summer that I really loved. The owner just let us walk in to see it (she ran an errand!) and just wanted us to lock it on the way out! It had a great garden that I would have loved to work on. It’s just such a big decision to pick up and move. We’re not *old-old* but we’re not young either and moving where we have no support system is a little scary! So, I dream on… 🙂

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  8. Es war sehr interessant Tanja, hier deinen interessanten Beitrag und die vielfältigen Kommentare und Antworten zu lesen. Ich war in jungen Jahren als Rucksack Reisender mit wenig Geld auf den Strassen des nahen, mittleren und fernen Ostens unterwegs.

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  10. Thank you for pointing me towards the Compromise of 1850, which I can’t remember having been referred to during my studies of US history. Not, it would appear, the United Sates’ finest hour…though worse was to follow, obviously.

    Interesting that you have contemplated a move to New Mexico. You seem to have the same emotional connection with it as Mrs P and I have with Orkney. To move or not move is such a tough decision, one not to be taken lightly. I feel your pain…

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    • Thank you for your comment, Mr. P. There is so much little known history that I keep getting surprised, and not usually in a pleasant way. We seem doomed to not get along and make this a worse place for everybody in the process.

      The moving question keeps coming up, as Colorado in general and Colorado Springs in particular keep growing too much for our taste. But it’s hard to pick a place on the map and start all anew.

      That being said, why don’t you and Mrs. P sign up with “Escape to the Country.” I’m sure they could help you find your dream home on the Orkneys. 😊

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  11. This reminds me of the big ‘Welcome to Caithness’ sign which was a few miles west of my childhood home, and how I always looked out for it when we were returning from an outing in that direction. Rabbit holes are fun – you never know what you’ll find down there… 🙂

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  12. Thinking about it, I realized that the three most common out-of-state plates here during every season are from Florida, Colorado, and Arizona. In winter, of course, we have a lot of people coming down from the cold and snowy regions of the country to bask in our mild weather. I’ve always thought the Arizona plate was the most striking, graphically; the color combination is as pleasing as the design.

    The other big attraction always is the time of year when the Hatch chilis ripen. Our largest local grocery chain brings them in by the truckload, and they’re served up in every way possible. For years, I had a beautiful ristra of dried red peppers, but it finally got tossed in a move. Have you ever been to Hatch? You might enjoy this website. Now I want some tamales!

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    • I also love Arizona license plates. We actually see quite a number of Texas plates here, and I think at least some of them are connected to the military and never bother to change them.
      There is a rivalry (I don’t know how friendly it is) between Hatch and Pueblo about who has the best chilis. We have not (yet) visited Hatch, but I’m sure it would be fun to do so. Ristras are everywhere in N.M. and we have brought some back in the past. I also find them very attractive.
      Hope you were able to find some tamales for dinner.

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  13. What a wonderful and informative post, Tanja! Thank you!

    We have some fabulous memories of New Mexico. Camping in Cloudcroft, exploring White Sands, enjoying Hatch green chiles, the sights and sounds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese at Bosque del Apache — now I need to plan another visit!!

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  15. I couldn’t help to think of Sheldon’s Fun with Flags from the Big Bang Theory. Fascinating history of New Mexico and the surrounding areas. My US history pretty much sucks so this helps to fill in the gaps!

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    • We complement one another: you know current TV series, I’m more at home in history books. Never watched the Big Bang Theory and would do horribly on Jeopardy in a modern TV/film category. 😊

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