Category Archives: New Mexico History
Las Historias Escondidas de Sunland Park
In 2011 and 2012, the small New Mexico border community of Sunland Park made regional headlines and national news for its political scandals. Delving into the sensational, the media coverage largely glossed over long-running environmental troubles affecting the lives of the town’s residents on a daily basis. “Las Historias Escondidas de Sunland Park (The Hidden…
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The Deep Roots of Harvest Festival Time
Editor’s note: The late summer and autumn are times of the year when New Mexico bursts alive in collective gatherings rooted in celebrations of the earth, the seasons and popular culture. In the latest installment in our special series for the New Mexico Centennial of Statehood, we examine the deep cultural roots of festival time…
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A Pecan Epitaph
Editor’s Note: Resuming our special series for the New Mexico Centennial of Statehood, today’s article discusses the recent closure of a rural New Mexico landmark store and its relationship to the important pecan industry in southern New Mexico and northern Mexico. This series was made possible in part by grants from the New Mexico Humanities…
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The Land of the Chile Pilgrims
Editor’s Note: As the official celebration of the New Mexico Centennial of Statehood kicks off in earnest, Frontera NorteSur marks almost three years of special stories examining the history of the southern New Mexico borderland during the last one hundred years. Today’s piece continues the series into the 2012 centennial year with a look at…
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100 Years of No Workers’ Comp
For the nearly one hundred years New Mexico has been a US state, farm and ranch workers have been excluded from the state workers’ compensation system. The labor force was systematically left out of legislation passed in 1917, 1937, 1973 and 1990. Despite the exclusion, contributions to the state administrative system are deducted from workers’…
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Pumpkin Power
FNS Special Feature Editor’s Note: In the days before Halloween, pumpkins start popping up everywhere. Although pumpkins are not as renowned as chile or even pecans in New Mexico agriculture, home-grown specimens supply the cravings of pie-lovers and stir the fantasies of spook celebrators. And recently, pumpkins have become a part of the annual cycle…
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The Three Centuries of San Miguel
Editor’s Note: An old rural town just south of Las Cruces, San Miguel is a small community that could be overlooked by drivers headed elsewhere. Yet a stop in the town reveals a treasured past that tucks in varied cultural influences, distinct waves of migration and epochs of economic growth and contraction. The following story…
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Radio Documentary: “Behind the Truck Stop: The Story of Vado-Del Cerro
[audio:http://dept-wp.nmsu.edu/fnsnews/files/2011/09/VadodelCerroFINAL.mp3|titles=Radio Documentary: “Behind the Truck Stop: The Story of Vado-Del Cerro”] This program explores the rich history of the small town of Vado-Del Cerro, New Mexico. Located about 20 minutes north of the US- Mexico border in Dona Ana County, Vado-Del Cerro developed as an African American farming settlement before growing into a majority Latino…
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Blacks in a Border County
Editor’s Note: For many years, the myth of the three co-existing cultures-Native, Hispano and Anglo-held great currency in New Mexico. Besides glossing over conflicts, this perspective ignored the presence and contributions of other peoples such as African-Americans. As New Mexico’s Centennial of Statehood celebration gets underway, it is timely then, to review the histories and…
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Change and Challenge in a New Mexico Border Town
Editor’s Note: Continuing with the New Mexico Centennial series, today’s article is the second of two pieces on the history of Vado-Del Cerrro in the rural Mesilla Valley south of Las Cruces. This article was made possible in part by support from the New Mexico Centennial Project, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and the…
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