Buenos Dias From the Land of Enchantment
Apparently the #1 “most hated” state
As a native New Mexican, there are two books about my home state that I love very much. One is Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford and the other is The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols.
In The Milagro Beanfield War, there is a perfect scene where a PhD student from New York shows up in a very small northern New Mexican town. He is a fish out of water and this old lady, someone’s abuela, hides behind a low wall and throws small pebbles at him nonstop with pinpoint accuracy. Plink. Plink!
I love that scene. You see, growing up in New Mexico in the 1970’s we often reminded each other to not talk about how great New Mexico is. We knew we didn’t need anyone coming to our gorgeous state.
But they did anyway. People discovered what we already knew and started moving in. The big migration out of New York in the 1970’s landed a lot of expat New Yorkers in Albuquerque where they complained, a lot.
It’s okay, I know I grew up somewhere uncool. I used to ride Southwest Airlines in those early days and would shake my head over and over to see that on a connecting flight to somewhere good, the plane was shiny and new. Connecting from somewhere good and flying into Albuquerque the plane was the oldest and most rundown in the fleet. Over and over.
It still happens, by the way. Breaking Bad may have sent more people to visit my home state, but the airlines still put the crap planes on the routes that get me back home. Whatever, I’m used to being dunked on as a proud New Mexican.
So I guess it was no surprise, and yet I was totally surprised, to read this story and find my fair New Mexico topping the list:
Let’s unpack the reasons why New Mexico is listed at Number 1:
There’s not much going on by the water in New Mexico: probably because there’s not much water. Dry and parched, they say New Mexico only has two types of weather, hot…and hotter. Average summer temperatures are often over 100 degrees.
Not sure who the ubiquitous “they” are, but average winter temperatures are in the 30s. Even in summer, New Mexico is high desert which means the temps do soar, but one of the best things is when the temps drop as the sun goes down and then it’s low 70s in the evening.
I think the author has confused New Mexico with Arizona. It happens a lot. Phoenix or Las Vegas? 105 at midnight. Albuquerque? 68 with a slight breeze at midnight. Open the windows and smell the chaparral and creosote.
Heaven.
Also, you want to go “by the water?” Try Elephant Butte lake. Or Ute Lake. Or for giggles, sit a spell on the banks of the Rio Grande river. Yes, there is a drought in New Mexico, like many parts of the US, but water exists.
Next?
The cost of living is low in New Mexico but that doesn’t mean much when jobs are as scarce as water. Earning a spot as the 7th worst state for employment, it doesn’t matter how cheap things are if you have NO job and NO money.
7th worst is not THE worst. An oft quoted cheer for my home state, “We’re not the worst” and “thank goodness for Mississippi.” Yeah, I get it. New Mexico is a poverty state. It is a problem. But it’s no reason to hate the place.
New Mexico can be a rough state for employment but there are jobs. Perhaps not the kind of work that author wants to take, but for example Intel has a huge presence there. Amazon just opened a call center. Two National Laboratories offer solid employment with awesome benefits to a whole lot of New Mexicans. And let’s not forget the military which employs an incredible amount of people.
For a cool factor, Virgin Galactic just made its first successful space flight from Spaceport America which is, TA DAAAAA: located in New Mexico. I went to the Virgin Galactic website and looked a whole page of job postings located in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
You want more cool stuff? The first astronauts spent time in New Mexico doing testing and training before going to moon.
And you want to talk space? Let’s talk space.
Roswell. Boom.
And?
Not much grows here in this arid and deserted wasteland either, except tons of cactus and tumbleweeds amongst the rolling sand dunes and massive canyons of empty space. So unless you have a great affection for never seeing any other color but bland bround [SIC] sand and the occasional green dot, then you might want to take a lesson from the tumbleweed and blow right past this state.
You know, anyone who can’t see the beauty of the desert is, to me, a lost cause. If you can’t see it, I can’t convince you. Actually, if you can’t see it, I don’t even want to try to convince you. You are broken inside.
So keep your green patches and your humidity. Keep your elitist attitude too.
Wait a minute, I did what I was told not to do. Forget all of that. Cancel, clear, delete.
Nope, you had it right fellow Medium writer. New Mexico sucks. Don’t bother. No need. The food isn’t the greatest in the world. The culture isn’t beautiful and fascinating. The incredible hills and canyons are boring.
Nope, New Mexico isn’t truly the Land of Enchantment.
Yep, yep, yep.
Karen Fayeth was born with the eye of a writer and the heart of a story-teller. From her New Mexico roots she is constantly evolving through global experience. Karen has won awards for her writing, photography, and art. Currently, she is working on a collection of her many short stories titled, “A Delicate Pain”.
Now living in the San Francisco Bay area, she can be found online at www.karenfayeth.com and on all the socials: Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Facebook
