Hispanos of New Mexico
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 750,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 USA c. 750,000
|
|
| Significant New Mexican Hispanos in: | |
 New Mexico
|
338,297 (2010 U.S. Census) |
 Colorado
|
202,011 (2010 U.S. Census) |
 Arizona
|
130,362 (2010 U.S. Census) |
 Utah
|
42,568 (2010 U.S. Census) |
 Texas EP
|
32,630 (2010 U.S. Census) |
| Languages | |
|
American English (NM varieties) New Mexican Spanish |
|
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Roman Catholic Protestantism · Judaism (Crypto-Judaism) |
|
The Hispanos of New Mexico (less commonly referred to as Nuevomexicanos) are people of Spanish or Amerindian-Hispanic descent native to the region of Santa Fé de Nuevo Mexico, now the Four Corners region but primarily centering on New Mexico and southern Colorado, in the United States. For most of its modern history, New Mexico belonged to Spain (16th century – 1821) and later Mexico (1821–1848). Like some of the Californios and Tejanos, most settlers in New Mexico were of Spanish ancestry (either directly or through Mexico). The descendants of the settlers make up an ethnic community of more than 340,000 in New Mexico, with others in southern Colorado.
In Spanish, the predominant term for this ethnic group has always been Hispano, analogous to Californio and Tejano (not capitalized when used adjectivally). In New Mexico, the Spanish-speaking population (of colonial descent) was always proportionally greater than those of California and Texas. The term is commonly used to differentiate those who settled the area early, around 1598 to 1848, from later Mexican migrants. It can also refer to anyone of "Spanish or Indo-Hispanic descent native to the American Southwest." Since the spread of the terms Hispanic and Latino since 1970 to encompass all peoples in the United States (and often beyond) of Spanish-speaking background, the terms Nuevomexicanos, Novomexicanos, and Neomexicanos are sometimes used in English to refer to this group.
The first Spanish settlers emigrated to New Mexico on July 11, 1598, when the explorer Don Juan de Oñate came north from Mexico City to New Mexico with 500 Spanish settlers and soldiers and a livestock of 7,000 animals. The settlers founded San Juan de los Caballeros, the first Spanish settlement in what was called the Kingdom of New Mexico, after the Valley of Mexico.
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