New Mexico is one of only a few states where a majority minority exists. That means that most of the people living in the state are part of a minority. In this case Hispanics. Hispanic means simply that they can trace their heritage back to a colony of Spain. However, that is very broad group of people and can refer to people who live in the Caribbean to people that live in Mexico. However New Mexico Hispanics are different than both. While they have more similarities to the Mexican culture than any other Hispanic culture however, just like in my New Mexico food blog, they are different. The language spoken by the culture is Spanish however they also speak English. At school, many students who are Hispanic spoke English everywhere except at home where they spoke Spanish, and for some they did not speak Spanish at all. They have no accent since they learned and have been speaking English since the time you and I learned English (very young) they simply learned English and Spanish concurrently and interestingly some have both English and Spanish as a first language. That means that they have the option to think in their mind in either language. I find that very cool! Another interesting part of the Hispanic culture in New Mexico, and the New Mexico culture in general, is the Spanishization of Native American words. When the Spanish empire pushed into what was to become New Mexico they encountered Native American cultures, namely the Navajo and Puebloans. They took their words and names for things and, much as English does (Anglicization), they Spanishized certain words. That means that you get town names like Chilili and Tajique (I challenge you to pronounce those names). Both were originally Native American names for places that were changed by the Spanish. Thus, some words are very, very odd indeed and have no basis in English words at all, compared with other parts of America (*cough Lewistown, Lewisburg, Lewisberry). Many places in New Mexico are in Spanish or have Spanish pronunciations. So, while I cannot speak Spanish at all, meaning I cannot put my own sentences together, I can pronounce Spanish words, phrases, and if I can read sentences or they are spoken slowly I can discern what is said. I have a fairly large collection of Spanish nouns memorized due to street and location names. Knowing Spanish, however, is not a requirement for visiting New Mexico. Back to the Hispanic culture, it does permeate daily live everywhere. Quinceañera’s do occur and I have had the privilege of attending one in fact. They are very grand and exciting with lots of singing of words I do not understand. One cannot live in New Mexico without being exposed to this culture and it is interesting to be a part of. I wish I could go into more detail but it is hard to describe differences between the culture there and elsewhere since I have lived there my whole live. I sense a difference when I go out of New Mexico but I cannot place my finger on exactly what that difference is. Thus, I have only been able to give you a brief overview of the language and certain interesting parts of their lives. As I have always said before you just got to visit to understand it.