THEM’S FIGHTING WORDS
Hatch Valley farmers take their chile seriously. So seriously that they obtained a state law barring false claims of Hatch-ness and are seeking similar cred from the feds. When former New Mexico resident Craig Carothers saw a sign at a Eureka, California, grocery store for “Hatch Chiles—Grown in Mexico,” he knew he had to correct the produce manager. Up in Anacortes, Washington, Gail Beasley, a native of Los Alamos, saw a similar sign that not only moved Hatch to Mexico but spelled it “chili.” You better believe she spoke to her produce manager, too.
“I didn’t have the heart to tell him the correct spelling of chile,” she says. “But I did tell him that New Mexico is very proud of their chiles and doesn’t take kindly to mislabeling of their crop.” Testify! Other states can love our chile, but they better love New Mexico, too.
MOVING MOUNTAINS
Lee Caruana, a Ratón physician, sent us a promotional piece he received in the mail that aimed to lure family-practice doctors to Colorado. Prepared by a recruitment firm out of Irving, Texas, it didn’t reveal which Colorado community was looking for a doctor—perhaps because even the recruiter didn’t know. The front of the piece held three lovely but geographically indeterminate images of winter skiing, trout fishing, and deer rambling, plus a fourth shot of unmistakably majestic Ship Rock, which every New Mexican knows nestles in the Land of Enchantment.
“Ship Rock appears to have sailed to Colorado,” Caruana said. Given that the piece was dated 2011, it’s safe to say it wasn’t persuasive enough to get Caruana to sail away, too.
DÓNDE ESTÁ CLOVIS?
In August, the Washington Post wrote about the earliest appearances of people in North America and made appropriate reference to archaeological evidence found in our own Clovis. One problem: The article said that the famed Clovis points were “discovered in Clovis, Mexico.” The newspaper caught its error in time for online readers and even admitted it there: “An earlier version of this post misstated where Clovis is located. It is in New Mexico.” But by then, newspapers across the nation had picked it up and printed the wrong locale.
That’s OK. After 13,000 years, Clovis people are quite capable of finding their way home on their own.
HAVE A “MISSING” MOMENT?
Send it to fifty@nmmagazine.com or Fifty, New Mexico Magazine, 495 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Include your name, hometown, and state. Thanks!