New Mexico

The state where Spanish rule lasted longest and left the deepest mark, and the only one whose constitution explicitly protects the language. Santa Fe was founded around 1610, making it the oldest continuously occupied capital in the country, in a region where Pueblo towns had already stood for centuries. Spanish rule was interrupted by the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, which expelled the colonists for twelve years, and resumed in 1692 on noticeably gentler terms. The territory passed to Mexico in 1821 and to the United States in 1848, and its Hispano population - descendants of the original settlers rather than later Mexican immigrants - remained the majority for generations. That is why statehood took sixty-four years, longer than any other contiguous territory: Congress repeatedly balked at admitting a Spanish-speaking, Catholic, non-white-majority state, and it was finally admitted in 1912 with a constitution guaranteeing Spanish-language voting and schooling rights. The Manhattan Project built the bomb at Los Alamos and tested it at Trinity in July 1945. Native, Hispano and Anglo are still the working categories of state politics. It has the highest share of Native American and Hispanic residents combined of any state. Santa Fe is the capital and Albuquerque the largest city. The state has the highest average elevation after Colorado. Carlsbad Caverns and Chaco Canyon are World Heritage sites. The Rio Grande runs its length. Green and red chile are the official state question. The state has the lowest population density of any outside the far west and Alaska. Roswell has traded on a 1947 incident ever since.

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