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From New World Encyclopedia
Featured Article: New Mexico
Some 12,000 years ago it was occupied by Native American populations and has been part of the Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of a territory of Mexico, and a U.S. territory.
Among U.S. states, New Mexico has simultaneously the highest percentage of Hispanic Americans (some recent immigrants and others descendants of Spanish colonists) and the third-highest percentage of Native Americans (10.9 percent) after Alaska(19 percent) and Oklahoma(11.3 percent) (mostly Navajo and Pueblo peoples). As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. Amerindian cultural influences.
New Mexico's modern history is forever linked to the world’s first atomic bomb explosion over a portion of its Jornada del Muerto desert in 1945. In those same deserts where ancient native religions worshiped, a wide variety of faiths have been establishing communities since the 1960s.
In national politics, New Mexico has given its electoral votes to all but two Presidential election winners since statehood. In these exceptions, New Mexicans supported Republican President Gerald Ford over Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Democratic Vice President Al Gore over Texas Governor George W. Bush in 2000.
