Southwestern history

Six vintage covers of Bob Damron’s address books from 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, and 1976 shown in a grid arrangement.

Cruising the Mother Road

I found my first taste of freedom crisscrossing cornfields shadowed by windmills in rural Indiana in a hand-me-down Oldsmobile. Burnt CDs from friends and lovers made my small-town life feel cinematic.

By Lazarus Letcher

A woman carrying a bucket stands outside a house, watching a large nuclear explosion with a mushroom cloud in the distance under a blue sky.

When Atomic Testimony Becomes Art

“Dear Journalist,” the letter starts. “You have been tasked with investigating recent deaths linked to alleged creature sightings in the Tularosa Basin area. It is speculated that these deaths have been occurring in Southern New Mexico ever since ‘the sun rose twice’ last year.” These are the initial instructions for a 3D point-and-click video game called El Sol.

By Myrriah Gómez

A hillside forest of scorched, leafless trees stands beneath a layer of mist, showing signs of recent wildfire damage.

The Loss of the Commons: A Historic Context for the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire

In April 2022, the largest and most destructive wildfire in New Mexico history, known as the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, erupted in the Santa Fe National Forest.The wildfire originated from two U.S.

By Dr. Oliver Horn

A rustic wooden and metal gate stands open in a wire fence, with rocky hills and sparse vegetation in the background under a blue sky.

Remembering as Resistance

My mother was adopted through the Indian Adoption Project, a federal program that ran from 1958 to 1967 and was designed to assimilate Native children by placing them with white families.

By Shayla Blatchford

18th-century map of North America showing territories, geographical features, and colonial claims, with a decorative cartouche in the upper right corner.

Reckoning with 1776

It is known today as New Mexico, a place where time is recognized as “immemorial.” Here, the footprints of people in motion, likely left 23,000 years ago, remain impressed upon the land.

By Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez

Seven young women and one adult pose on stage, some holding certificates, in front of a screen displaying Nacha Mendez Music Scholarship for New Mexican Girls of Color.

Traveling the Latin World through Nacha Mendez’s Music

Notes from a guitar and Spanish lyrics float out of the Hotel Santa Fe as the lobby doors open on a Friday, inviting residents and visitors to step inside and travel to Latin America.

By Leah Romero

A white antelope skull with long, dark, straight horns mounted on a plain white background. [gen-ai]

Ritual Killing: Oryx in New Mexico

As the desert transitions from deep blacks to dim greys and blues, we creep through the mountain pass. We leave the city lights behind us and roll into the dark nothingness.

By Marcus Xavier Chormicle

color photograph of the guadalupe mountains

Before the Famous Fossils: Ancient Life in the Paleozoic Era in New Mexico

Talking about ancient life and the Paleozoic Era (252 to 541 million years ago) in New Mexico elicits various unexpected responses. Oh, cool! The ancient Puebloans. Well, no. A little further back.

By Tamara Enz

Photography by Paul Sealey

Artist’s conceptualization of life at Lake Otero. Missing from the image are trees. Researchers believe that the area was forested with pine, spruce and cottonwood, among other species. Research on pollens from the footprint layers is ongoing, with results expected next year. Image by Karen Carr; courtesy of the National Park Service.

History, Science, Mythology, and the First Americans

A young woman hurried across the flat, trailing footprints. At times she slipped. At times she stretched to cross a puddle. She carried a child and possibly a container for water, or food, or perhaps a bag of firewood or stones for making tools.

By Dr. David Kilby and Jim O’Donnell

Black-and-white portrait of a man in a military uniform and cap, displaying several medals and stripes on his jacket, facing the camera with a neutral expression. [gen-ai]

The Power of One

By Stephanie PadillaPhotographs courtesy Dr. Michael H. Trujillo In 1948, Pueblo advocate Miguel H. Trujillo and Indian Law attorney Felix Cohen walked into a courtroom and prevailed in their fight to win the Native American right to vote in New Mexico.

By Stephanie Padilla