Driving up I-25 between Hatch and TorC on Friday, saw a truck pulling a trailer absolutely piled with bags of chiles and ristras hanging from the top rails. Didn’t think too much about it then, but now that you mention it, there is a lot of awesome cultural flavor (sorry, pun?) that is unique to NM.
Sometimes I try to explain how little New Mexico resembles the rest of the US and how I did not, for instance, learn a lot of "American history" in school, and everyone thinks I'm being annoying. Anyway: vigas
Also native New Mexican, and holy hell can I ever confirm this. I participated in the spousal import program and my Bostonian wife was extremely confused about the conquistador parade in my elementary school.
Vigas are visible wooden beams in a ceiling! Very Santa Fe. And a ristra is a string of dried chiles; you see them hanging next to doorways, and they are both festive and a good way to store your chile. (But if you hang a ristra in NYC, the cockroaches will move in.)
[my most obnoxious voice] I have much nicer turqoise, coral, lapis, and onyx jewelry that I literally pull out of a suitcase my grandmother left me and rarely have to "buy" anything lol
My first time driving in to town via Camino del Monte Sol in the early eighties blew my mind! I still bring visitors that way. It's soooo like a foreign country with stunning beauty, architecture, food, art. Still, i am remodeling an old stucco plain house off 14 to be white & windows & modern. 🤪
I've never been anywhere in the continental US that feels as much like being in a foreign country. Most of the people speak English and the stores take dollars, but it sure isn't Arizona, Colorado or Texas.
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Then there was also the hubris of thinking I knew how to read and write Spanish and then moving to New Mexico.