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You selected one of my favorite states. I was raised most of my life in New Mexico. Mrs ladtx and I met in Albuquerque and were married in Clayton in an adobe Catholic Church. Here is a picture of one of my favorite sites, the Santaurio de Chimayo in Chimayo, an out of the way community in northern New Mexico.
SCOUTS OUT!
And you can freeze your tail off climbing up and down the paths in beautiful Carlsbad Cavern in southeastern New Mexico. That's the most beautiful cave I know of in the U.S., and I've taken the tour through several others.
And there's Los Alamos, atomic city, and the museum about the Manhattan Project is great.
And I could go on and on, because New Mexico is loaded with fascinating sights, and the New Mexican style of Mexican food beats all others, IMHO.
Click the roadrunner!
Click
TLAXCALAN INDIANS.
The Tlaxcalan (Tlascalan, Tlaxcaltecan, Tlaxcalteco) Indians of central Mexico, who spoke a Uto-Aztecan language, aided Cortez in his conquest of the Aztec empire and received certain privileges in return. This relationship of mutual aid and trust continued into later times, and Tlaxcalans often assisted the Spaniards on the frontier in exploration, warfare, and colonization. A Tlaxcalan was with Antonio de Espejo in Trans-Pecos Texas and New Mexico in 1582-1583. In 1688 a Tlaxcalan scout was sent by the governor of Coahuila to check on René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's colony on the Texas coast, and this same Tlaxcalan reported the presence of Jean Jarry, a survivor of the La Salle expedition, among Coahuiltecan Indians near the Rio Grande. Shortly thereafter Tlaxcalan auxiliary soldiers were with several expeditions that sought La Salle's Fort St. Louis and were also with Domingo Terán de los Ríos in the Hasinai country of eastern Texas. In 1759 Tlaxcalan auxiliaries were with Diego Ortiz Parilla in his disastrous punitive campaign against the Comanches and their allies on the Red River. Although there were plans to settle Tlaxcalans at several strategic places in Texas, relatively few actually settled there (nine families arrived at San Saba Mission in 1757). However, Tlaxcalan colonists were fairly numerous at various places on or just south of the Rio Grande, as at El Paso (refugees from northern New Mexico after the Pueblo Indian rebellion of 1680), at San Juan Bautista near present Eagle Pass (settled there about 1700 to help instruct and control the Coahuiltecan Indians at nearby missions), and in the lower Rio Grande valley (invited by José de Escandón to settle in his new colony of Nuevo Santander in the 1750s). Descendants of these early Tlaxcalan settlers still live along the Rio Grande, and some are undoubtedly living in Texas today.
Mama_Bear, what's happened to you? You used to be so perfect. It seems you haven't been the same ever since the Lynyrd Skynyrd misspelling debacle (hehe, I sure enjoyed that one).........or maybe it's just that you're spending too much time around dutchess. :-)
Carrizozo
It's forbidden for a female to appear unshaven in public.
Deming
Persons may not spit on the steps of the opera house.
Hunting is prohibited in Mountain View Cemetery.
One may not lead goats down the sidewalks of the city
Las Cruces
You may not carry a lunchbox down Main Street.
CLICK!
A favorite event of Rodeo is the BULLRIDING. Why does one start riding bulls? A good question, but one cowboy, that calls himself Rattler, calls it an addiction. Rattler says there is no feeling like it in the world that can be matched against a beast that can weigh up to over 2000 lbs and most bullriders weighing in around 150 to 175.
The rider has very litttle rules to follow ...Hold on with only one hand ...never touch the bull with your other hand (called the free hand) and stay on top of the beast for a full 8 seconds. Sounds easy --- Garth Brooks says it in his song FEVER, "its really kinda simple, keep your mind in the middle while your butt spins round and round".
You hold on with a braided rope that has a hand hold plaited into it (a long flat hand piece laced with leather) pulled tight around the bull's chest, the only thing holding this to the bull is your grip in your riding hand ..add to your attire a set of spurs to get a hold of the ornery critter and a glove on your hand so you don't lose all the hide from your little paw.. and you are ready.
Everything starts in a bucking chute, you get to make everything just the way you want it, adjust your rope --pull it as tight as you want it-- and get set *LOL* (If the bull sits still and lets you). Then the hard part ..you got to nod your head and tell the guys to open the gate..a large beast with a little bitty Cowboy on his back turns every bit of power he has loose in just a split second ..its up to you to stay on... its you against him and nothing else matters .....its a no win situation but if everything goes right ..now and then you get lucky and make that 8 seconds of glory ......you've done something not many can do, you've conquered the beast ..this time.
Rattler is a Bull Rider.
The older folks were in traditional clothes, some of the youngsters in modern dress but just as serious and undramatic about the dance as their elders.
It was nothing like the Hollywood version. It was slow, graceful, dignified, with no exaggerated movements. Done in a circle, with soft chanting. It was one of the most beautiful, moving things I have ever seen.
BTTT...