11.06.2012,3:37 PM
Tales from Occupied New Mexico
High plains and dirt road north of Cibola National Forest in central NM.
You may wonder about the title 'Occupied New Mexico,' if I am posting about Big Bend, Texas. Simple: The more I experience New Mexico, the more I realize how similar many parts of Big Bend are to New Mexico. Big Bend is more like New Mexico than the rest of Texas: in terrain, people and communities, biodiversity, and even architecture. If you know the rich history of southwest Texas and New Mexico, even the present is parallel.

A well-known expert in adobe construction, an adobero, that lives in New Mexico once referred to SW TX, as 'Occupied New Mexico.' He's right, and he doesn't realize what he started, for I now refer to Big Bend as the same: Occupied New Mexico. Partly because most other people don't have a clue what I am talking about. Partly because I tend to buck convention with place names, and use a name that reflects past history as well as current perspectives. I don't owe blind allegiance to any place on a map; places own me and I give them names that mean something to me.

I'll refer to this off and on both in this series and the one on New Mexico. 

And I do the same things in both states, including getting wet when riding the bike.



 

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posted by Macrobe
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