The Spanish settlement began 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. They founded San Juan de los Caballeros, the first Spanish settlement in what was called the Kingdom of New Mexico, after the Valley of Mexico. The mainland part of New Spain won independence from Spain in 1821 and New Mexico became part of the new nation of Mexico. The new 'Mexican' elite attempted to create a common identity out of all the classes and different ethnicities. Nationalists attempted to establish equality, if only legally, between these different groups. The Spanish settlers of New Mexico and their descendants adapted to Mexican citizenship somewhat even though there was a great deal of tension during this period--as was the case in many places in early Mexico. In 1836, after the Republic of Texas gained independence, Texas claimed part of the Province of New Mexico, which was disputed by Mexico. In 1841, the Texans sent an expedition to occupy the area, but the expedition was captured by Mexican troops; In January 1912, after decades of colonial status, New Mexico became an American state, and Anglophones eventually became the majority population but census documents indicate that Spanish and English remained about equal in usage through the 1960s. The state today still has the highest percentage of Spanish-speakers of any state. The Nuevomexicanos became an economically disadvantaged population in the state, becoming virtual second-class citizens compared with the Anglos. The Nuevomexicanos suffered discrimination from Anglophone Americans, who also questioned the loyalty of these new American citizens. The cultures of Nuevomexicanos and immigrant Anglophones eventually mixed to some degree, as was the case with immigrants in other parts of the United States.
Demographics
Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic ancestry, at 47 percent, including descendants of Spanish colonists and recent immigrants from Hispanic America. Ethnically, 47.0% of the total population was of Hispanic. Women make up approximately 51% of the population. In 2008 New Mexico had the highest percentage of Hispanics of any state, with 83% of these native-born and 17% foreign-born. The majority of Hispanics in New Mexico claim a Spanish ancestry, especially in the northern part of the state. These people are the descendants of Spanish colonists who arrived during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. See Nuevomexicanos. There were 873,171 White Hispanics. According to the 2000 United States Census, two of the top five most commonly claimed ancestry groups in New Mexico were:,
Mexican
Spanish
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 28.76% of the population aged 5 and older speak Spanish at home. Speakers of New Mexican Spanish dialect are mainly descendants of Spanish colonists who arrived in New Mexico in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. New Mexican Spanish is an archaic form of 17th century Castilian Spanish.
New Mexican Spanish
The original state constitution of 1912 provided for a bilingual government with laws being published in both English and Spanish; this requirement was renewed twice, in 1931 and 1943. Nonetheless, the constitution does not declare any language as "official." While Spanish was permitted in the legislature until 1935, all state officials are required to have a good knowledge of English. Cobarrubias and Fishman therefore argue that New Mexico cannot be considered a bilingual state as not all laws are published in both languages. Others, such as Juan Perea, claim that the state was officially bilingual until 1953. With regard to the judiciary, witnesses have the right to testify in either of the two languages, and monolingual speakers of Spanish have the same right to be considered for jury-duty as do speakers of English. In public education, the state has the constitutional obligation to provide for bilingual education and Spanish-speaking instructors in school districts where the majority of students are hispanophone. In 1995, the state adopted a State Bilingual Song, New Mexico – Mi Lindo Nuevo México. New Mexico is commonly thought to have Spanish as an official language alongside English because of its wide usage and legal promotion of Spanish in the state; however, the state has no official language. New Mexico's laws are promulgated bilingually in Spanish and English. Although English is the state government's paper working language, government business is often conducted in Spanish, particularly at the local level. Because of its relative isolation from other Spanish speaking areas over most of its 400-year existence, New Mexico Spanish, and in particular the Spanish of northern New Mexico and Colorado has retained many elements of 16th- and 17th-century Spanish and has developed its own vocabulary. In addition, it contains many words from Nahuatl, the language spoken by the ancient Aztecs of Mexico. New Mexican Spanish also contains loan words from the Pueblo languages of the upper Rio Grande Valley, Mexican-Spanish words, and borrowings from English. Grammatical changes include the loss of the second person verb form, changes in verb endings, particularly in the preterite, and partial merging of the second and third conjugations.
