Happy State Hood to New Mexico

The State Of New Mexico, the state I’m living in, became an official state this day in 1912. At one point the portion of the country that makes up Arizona and New Mexico was one whole Territory, and was split up into two states. More importantly New Mexico was first and Arizona was second, take that you Arizona scum! Oh wait, I was born in Arizona, DOH!

The incorporation of the modern-day state’s territory into the United States was a gradual process. The northeastern corner was ceded by France in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The remainder of what is now New Mexico was then wholly claimed by the Spanish colony of New Spain and its successor state (after 1810), the Republic of Mexico. The incorporation of this territory into the USA came in three stages: the portion to the east of the Rio Grande was claimed by the breakaway Republic of Texas when it seceded from Mexico in 1836; this territory was transferred to the federal government by Texas in 1850.

Most of the western portion of the state (to the west of the river) was surrendered by Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Finally, the southwestern corner of the state (the “boot heel”) was ceded by Mexico under the 1853 Gadsden Purchase. The Territory of New Mexico was established on September 9, 1850; under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, slavery was legal in the territory, but does not appear to have taken significant hold there. The eastern half of the territory became the State of New Mexico, which was admitted to the Union as its 47th member on January 6, 1912, the western half being admitted separately as the 48th state of Arizona on February 14, 1912.

Wrong Kind Of Cactus On New Mexico Poster

The 2004 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is due to start in October. There’s been a bit of hub-bub because of the poster.

The major problem to me is they hired a Texas artist to do the poster. There’s always been a kind of Texas/New Mexico rivalry between the two states but this isn’t my issue. See New Mexico is pretty well know for it’s fancy-smancy artists. Santa Fe and Taos both have quite a few of those types there. I suspect they are at least better known for their artists than Texas.

Second problem is the Texas Artist screwed it up. There’s Balloons and there’s a cowboy. Sounds good. There are also Saguaro cactuses. For those not familiar with the South West United States, these are native to the Sonoran Desert which, “has a quite limited geographical range, centred on southern Arizona and extending into western Sonora (Mexico)” which means they don’t even exists in New Mexico. I know, to the rest of the world these cactuses exist in the desert southwest and that includes New Mexico. But if you want to accurately show one of New Mexico’s few claims to fames then it’s probably a good idea to be accurate on such a little detail. Perhaps the cactuses could be replaced with power lines.

By the way, thanks to Metaquerque for the links