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New Mexico: It’s Not New, and It’s Not Mexico
A historical perspective on America’s long occupation by people of color — or, why white nationalism makes no sense.
Shopping for gifts in Albuquerque’s Old Town, I come across the perfect Tee-shirt: “New Mexico — It’s Not New and It’s Not Mexico,” it reads, in clever words on stretch cotton as blue as the sky above me. I haven’t lived in the ‘Land of Enchantment’ very long, but a year from now I’ll write a lengthy piece describing everything people get wrong about New Mexico, starting with a D.C. clerk who didn’t appear to recognize New Mexico as a US state.
In fact, New Mexico is the fifth-largest state terms of land area, coming in just after Montana, with a titch over two million people. There is a vast amount of terrain available here to stretch my legs, and it’s not all cactus-strewn or barren rock (although, actually, some of it is.) Belying Albuquerque’s high crime rate, so far, all of my experiences since moving here earlier this year fall under the category of “Breaking Good.” I like being one of two million people surrounded by a warp in the time-space continuum that keeps New Mexico largely invisible. I especially like hiking trails in a dozen different…
