Located between Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico (Chihuahua and Sonora), Arizona, and Colorado, New Mexico is usually considered one of the Mountain States. As well, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at the Four Corners in the northwestern corner of New Mexico. It is generally incorrectly believed that New Mexico taken its name from the nation of Mexico. Actually it was given its name in 1563, by Spanish explorers who believed the area contained indian cultures similar to those of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire. Mexico, formerly a part of New Spain, adopted its name just in 1821, after winning independence from Spanish rule.
By the time of European contact, the region was inhabited by the Pueblo peoples and groups of Navajo, Apache and Ute. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado assembled an enormous expedition at Compostela in 1540-1542 to find the mystical Seven Golden Cities of Cibola, which of course it not happened. Fifty years later, New Mexico became part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. Juan de Oñate founded in 1598 the San Juan de los Caballeros colony, the first permanent European settlement in the future state of New Mexico, on the Rio Grande near Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. Santa Fe was also established at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains around 1608.
As a part of New Spain, the claims for the province passed to independent Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. The Republic of Texas claimed the portion east of the Rio Grande when it seceded from Mexico in 1836. The extreme northeastern part of New Mexico was owned by France, and sold to the US as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Mexico ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the American Southwest and California, to the US. In 1850 Texas ceded its claims to the area lying east of the Rio Grande in exchange for ten million dollars and the US government established the New Mexico Territory, including most of the present-day states of Arizona and New Mexico, and part of Colorado.
New Mexico played a role in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. Both Confederate and Union governments claimed territorial rights over New Mexico Territory. Confederate power in the New Mexico Territory was effectively broken after the Battle of Glorieta Pass in 1862. Congress admitted New Mexico as the 47th state in the Union on January 6, 1912. A major oil discovery in 1928 brought prosperity to the state. During WWII, the first atomic bombs were designed and manufactured at Los Alamos and the first was tested at Trinity site in the desert on the White Sands Proving Grounds. The state's population grew rapidly after WWII, going from 531,818 in 1940 to 1,819,046 in 2000.
Among US states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, including descendants of Spanish colonists who have lived in the area for over 400 years. It also has the second-highest percentage of Native Americans after Alaska, and the fourth-highest total number of Native Americans after California, Oklahoma, and Arizona. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Hispanic and Native American influences, both of which are reflected in the state flag. The scarlet and gold colors of the New Mexico flag are taken from the royal standards of Spain, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Pueblo-related tribe.
About the stamps
• Elderberry Longhorn - It's on the postcard 2021
• Lady Beetle - It's on the postcard 2045
• Yellow Garden Spider - It's on the postcard 2045
• Dogbane Beetle - It's on the postcard 2051
• Flower Fly - It's on the postcard 2051
• Assassin Bug - It's on the postcard 2021
• Velvet Ant - It's on the postcard 2051
• Eastern Hercules Beetle - It's on the postcard 1789
• Monarch Caterpillar - It's on the postcard 2051
• Monarch Butterfly - It's on the postcard 1789
• Black Widow
• Ebony Jewelwing - It's on the postcard 2134
• Bombardier Beetle - It's on the postcard 2229
• Dung Beetle - It's on the postcard 2229
• Spotted Water Beetle - It's on the postcard 2229
• True Katydid
• Spinybacked Spider - It's on the postcard 2204
• Periodical Cicada - It's on the postcard 2196
• Scorpionfly - It's on the postcard 2204
• Jumping Spider
The second, dedicated to Marylin Monroe (1926-1962), is part of the series Legends of Hollywood, about which I wrote here. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics and garnered a Golden Globe nomination. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959). In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth-greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the decades following her death, she has often been cited as both a pop and a cultural icon as well as the quintessential American sex symbol.
The third stamp, depicting the Chaparral bird (greater roadrunner) and the Yucca flower, which are New Mexico State Bird and Flower, is part of the series State Birds and Flowers, about which I wrote here.
About the last stamp, depicting the president Abraham Lincoln, I wrote here.
References
New Mexico - Wikipedia
Sender: Denise
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 23.02.2015
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