Letters

new mexico was never part of spain, a little country 4,000 miles from here. nebraska,the phillipines,puerto rico,& argentina also have never been part of europe, although all of these places were once part of the vast spanish empire.it's like alaska and san francisco bay once were part of the russian empire, and you can still see russia from certain places in alaska.

spain's empire included mexico. mexcio had many provinces, & new mexico was one. as a province of mexico, we were part of mexico, for centuries, but never part of spain.(remember: spain,europe; new mexico, north america) .

the colonists who came here all had spanish surnames. a few were spanish. most were mestizo-- mixture of european and native blood. many were pure mexican indians, but through centuries of isolation they all mixed with the local tano, tewa, keres, and later with french canadiens, irish & comanches.

the spanish had like 64 different grades or castes, and everyone wanted to steal a little status, marry up, pass as whiter than they were. wild; it's still going on today!

my oldtimer norteno friends 40 years ago would describe themselves to me as mejicanos, and if you read contemporary accounts that was the term used by everyone through the 19th and most of the 20th centuries. the romantic myth of the spanish haciendado is pretty well documented.

my mejicano friends tell me, "when we go to your pais, you know who treats us the worst? our own kind!" meaning the nuevomejicanos. fortunately, this is changing; racists and chauvanists of all stripes are losing their audience.

but its still entertaining, since cockfighting is illegal now.

signed, not native, but my kids & grandkids are!

Bravo to the letter.

In response to the other comments:

No one is claiming that all "Hispanos" in NM are 100% pure blooded Spaniards, only that for most of us, our lineage is PREDOMINANTLY Spanish European. One only has to look at the old Hispanos families that trace back generations (not newer immigrants to NM, of which there are many) to see light skin & Spanish features. If we are mestizo, then why don't we look like mestizos? At most, we likely have small traces of Amerindian blood with a few being equally mixed mestizos; it makes us no more mestizo than it makes an American of predominantly English descent with a drop of Cherokee a Native American. To suggest that is almost insulting to the true mestizos & Native Americans.

More importantly is the distinct Hispanos culture, food, & Spanish dialect in NM. The NM dialect of Spanish is an old colonial era Spanish & is notably lacking in Native American influence in comparison to bordering Spanish speaking populations. Why is that? It's because whether or not they have Amerindian blood, the fact does not change that culturally they maintained their "Spanishness". Race & genetics aside, the ethnic culture of Hispanos is shaped more by Spanish culture than Native American. Ultimately, it's a unique culture that might be best designated "Spanish-American" or simply "Hispanos".

Read: The Hispano Homeland.

It explains the unique history of NM:

-How the colonists did come directly from Spain (From the book: "The majority of New Mexcio's early documented colonists were from Spain, more than two thirds of whom were from Andalucia & Castile.")

-How isolated NM was for a long time, & how it was largely ignored by Mexico when under its rule.

-How the Pueblo people's successful (& unusual) rejection of Catholicism & other unique events served as a divide between the Spanish colonialists & the Indians to lessen miscegenation in comparison to bordering regions.

The descendants of Spanish colonists in NM ARE unique due to a unique history. The facts increasingly support a Spanish ethnic identity for the Hispanos, not a mestizo one.

It does NOT make us superior, but we do have a right to have our own history & heritage. I question the motives of people wanting to lump all Hispanics together, when every Spanish speaking country & even region in the Americas has its own story. I think people don't want to accept Spanish speaking people as "white"; it is their own racism & discomfort with something that doesn't fit into their neat little boxes.

I could care less if someone calls me white or not, but I do take offense at having my own family history revised by the Politically Correct Brigade who is rewriting history (sans actual facts) to suit their agenda.

I will concede that in more recent generations, many Hispanos have married mestizos or even Native Americans & have had visibly mixed children, so that the dwindling population of Hispanos people causes confusion as to their racial identity, as it's increasingly out of sync with their ethnic identity. They are being absorbed by other Hispanics, but it's no matter so long as the culture lives on; and the culture is definitely NOT the same as Mexican culture.