El Norte

The northern frontier of Spanish America — New Mexico from 1598, then Texas, Arizona and California — the oldest European-founded culture in much of the present US Southwest. A Hispanic-Catholic, family- and honour-centred frontier society, long independent-minded toward far-off capitals first in Mexico City and then in Washington after the 1848 cession. Today a bilingual borderland where the line on the map runs through a single, older cultural region.

• Existed: 1598 CE – present
• Type: Entity