Southwestern Regional Cookery: New Mexico and the United States

By 1846 the United States had become interested in New Mexico, in part because of the lucrative Santa Fe trade, in part because the area was en route to the valuable ports in California. During the Mexican War, American forces seized the province, and in 1850 New Mexico, with a population of sixty thousand Hispanic and Native American residents, formally became a territory of the United States. Until 1950 Hispanics accounted for more than 50 percent of New Mexico’s residents, but American influences made inroads into the New Mexican diet. New Mexico’s sheep industry declined in part because the newcomers preferred beef. The American army was the biggest purchaser of New Mexican products, and army regulations specified rations of beef, bacon, wheat flour, and vinegar, all in short supply in New Mexico. Soon enterprising individuals began to raise more beef, introduced swine, planted more acreage in wheat, and secured contracts to sell these products to the army. In addition, they began cultivating potatoes, virtually unknown in New Mexico in previous years. Large gristmills appeared, and canned goods, including tomatoes, made their way into New Mexico. Fruit production soared with new agricultural techniques. By the end of the century, even the New Mexico chili pepper was undergoing important changes, as Fabian Garcia of New Mexico State University worked to produce bigger, milder, and more standardized chilies from the traditional strains of pasilla, colorado, and negro found in New Mexico. In 1913 he introduced New Mexico No. 9, which became the standard chili in the New Mexico chili industry.