FOOLS AND NEWCOMERS
People who speak Spanish have lived in New Mexico for 400 years, and during that time they have given names to many towns, rivers, canyons and forests. These names tell a lot about the state, and those who don't speak Spanish often miss the little history lessons they teach.
Many of those names describe the vegetation in the area. For example, if you see the word "alamo", you can expect to see cottonwood trees. "Los Alamos" means "the cottonwoods", "Alamitos" means "little cottonwoods", "Alamogordo" means "fat cottonwood" and "Alameda" means "cottonwood grove".
"Manzano" means "apple tree", and the village with that name is said to have been the place where the first apple trees on this continent were planted, by Franciscan friars in the early 1600s. That beats Johnny Appleseed (1774-1845) by almost two centuries.
"Nogal" means "walnut", and trees bearing that nut can be found in the town with that name. Similarly oak trees, "encinos", can be found in Encino and in 36 other places with variant names like Encinal, Encinoso and Encinada.
Ranchers who build barbed wire fences and those of us with wood stoves and fireplaces are familiar with several species of juniper, called "sabina" in Spanish. "Sabinal" means "place of the junipers". Some of these trees are also called cedars, although no true cedars grow in New Mexico. The village of "Cedro" reflects that confusion.
Just down the road from Cedro is "Escobosa", which means "thick with broom grass". And some 32 places in the state are named "Chamisa" or some variation thereof. The shrub those names refer to is not native to the Americas, but was brought here by the Spaniards. Soon many areas of northern New Mexico became "chamisal" or "overgrown with chamisa".
"Overgrown with scrub oak" is what the word "Charparral" means, but it is also used to refer to our state bird, the roadrunner, which is quite adept at scurrying through scrub oak.
"La Tuna", in Dona Ana County, refers to the big prickly pear cactus that grows there. The flat, round leaves of this cactus resemble the fish, tuna.
There's one town in Socorro County called "Dusty" and another called "Polvadera". They both mean the same thing.
In Lincoln County, there is a town called "Alto", which means "high", and one called "Ancho", which means "wide". "La Bajada", the steep hill between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, means "the descent".
Many Spanish names are Christian terms. The words "San" and "Santa" mean "holy" and refer to many saints. New Mexico has several places named "San Mateo", "San Marcos" and "San Juan" (Matthew, Mark and John), but there doesn't seem to be a "San Lucas" (Luke).
"Santa Fe" means "holy faith", and our capital city is named for the Spanish capital of Queen Isabella. The full name of our "City Different" is "La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco" - "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis".
Not all the place names that appear to be Spanish are. The town "Jal" in Lea County is not pronounced like my last name. It was named for the first initials of rancher John A. Lynch's name. Similarly, the nearby town of "Maljamar" is not pronounced "Mahlha-mahr", as one might think. It is named for the three children of oil tycoon William Mitchell: MALcolm, JAnet and MARgaret.
Exploring the names of New Mexico places is one of the best ways to learn about our state's history. And the best way to do that is to buy a copy of "The Place Names of New Mexico" by Robert Julyan (UNM Press, 1996). It's an update and amplification of "New Mexico Place Names" by T.M. Pearce (UNM Press, 1965), and represents the work of a number of people going back to the New Mexico Writer's Project that started in 1936.
The best place for this book is in your glove compartment, where you and your children can get to it as you travel around the state.
Write to Morrow Hall at P.O. Box 631, Estancia, NM 87016-0631, or morrowhall@aol.com.
Posted with the permission of the author. You can read reviews of the book Morrow mentioned by clicking on the title above.