Old
New
When we lived in Denver in the 80's, I used to travel to New Mexico almost every month on business. I have fond memories of working in that state. I'm drawn to Native American culture, and there it blends with Latinos and the whites and becomes a "Land of Enchantment." I loved traveling among it's vistas and deserts, shopping for pots, rugs and jewelry made by the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and several other pueblo Indian tribes. I visited ruins left by the cliff dwelling Anazasis and enjoyed Tony Hillerman mystery novels set on the Navajo reservation. I've always preferred the state to it's bigger, more populated and in my opinion more glitzy neighbor, Arizona.
I don't know how new it is, but last week I saw the latest New Mexico license plate with "USA" printed on it at the bottom. I guessed that the new plate is a response to surveys done in the US mostly on the east coast, where when asked where New Mexico is a surprising percentage of Americans answered it is in Mexico! I'm sure the good folks in the Land of Enchantment are proud of their status as a state and felt that putting "USA" on the license plate will forever settle it's status in the minds of those who don't pay much attention to anything not in the Bos-Wash corridor. Myself, I prefer the old license plate.
We in the Rocky Mountain states like to be taken seriously. Utah has struggled with it's national image since before it became a state and it continues to try hard to prove that it's well within the mainstream. That's what hosting the 2002 Olympics was about, the candidacy of Mitt Romney, and the tourism board's motto of a few years back, "A Pretty Great State." Idaho would love to shed it's image as the potato state, Utah as the fundamental Mormon state, and New Mexico would just like you to know it IS a state. Montana is in better shape, known as the place where rich celebrities buy up huge ranches, Arizona is where the snowbirds go, and Colorado has successfully marketed itself as THE Rocky Mountain state.
Being a transplant (we've lived here over twenty years, but still, I'm not a native), I've always enjoyed the uncrowded open vastness of the west, sagebrush and all. I was raised in Los Angeles, and we lived there as a family and moved to Philadelphia, Denver, and back to Philly before coming here. Having lived in those big cities, I wouldn't want any city in the Rockies to approach the size of those places (alas, Phoenix already has and Denver is close). To me Las Vegas is everything the real west isn't, and I'd like things to stay pretty much the way the are out here, or even revert back a little. I love to visit San Francisco, New York and Chicago (especially because Katie and her family are there) but give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play.
