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New Mexico

A southwestern state between Arizona and Texas, New Mexico is the 36th most populous state, with about two million people. About 45 percent are Hispanic, the highest percentage in the country, thanks to the state's long history as part of first New Spain and later Mexico. After Alaska and Oklahoma, New Mexico also has the third-highest percentage of Native Americans, primarily Navajo and Pueblo peoples. Social networks in New Mexico among these groups are long established, and the state is demographically unique among U.S. states.

Ethnicity and Religion

Whites make up about 84 percent of the population (about half of whom are Hispanic), blacks 3 percent, and Native Americans 10 percent. The largest non-Hispanic white ancestry group is the German Americans, representing about 9 percent of the population, again demonstrating the extent of the Hispanic influence on the demographic. Many government publications, such as driver's manuals and legal notices, are published in both English and Spanish, and a little more than a quarter of the population speaks Spanish at home. The state is home to 22 sovereign Native American tribes, of which the Navajo, Pueblo, Hopi, and Apache are the largest. Most tribes hold events open to members of the public of any ethnicity, and Albuquerque is home to a large Pueblo Cultural Center. Just as significant as the number of Native Americans living on the reservations is the number who have assimilated and married into mainstream society over the generations. Relationships are thus intermingled among ethnic groups, and many long-time New Mexican residents can find one or more tribes represented in their genealogy.

The religious demographic of New Mexico is unique as well: about 26 percent of New Mexicans are Catholic, and Protestants are divided among a plethora of denominations. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has more adherents in the state (about 3 percent) than any one Protestant denomination, except for the Southern Baptist Convention (about 9 percent). The LDS presence in New Mexico dates to the settlements that formed the Mormon Corridor, the communities that were settled throughout the west to establish Mormon centers of production (from farming to mining) with the dual benefit of being far from the communities that had persecuted them back east and close to the Indians, whom they wished to convert. These older LDS communities maintain strong social networks, and both the church and individual parishioners offer various programs and groups for socializing outside church services. Extracurricular programs in community school systems also include LDS student groups.

Urban and Economic Networks

The urban population in New Mexico is rather unevenly distributed. The largest city, Albuquerque, has a population of about 530,000. The second-largest city, Las Cruces, is less than one-fifth that size, with a population of 93,570, followed by Rio Rancho (82,574, an Albuquerque suburb), the capital Santa Fe (73,720), and Roswell (46,576). Albuquerque is the 57th-largest metropolitan area in the country, home to Sandia National Laboratories, the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Kirtland Air Force Base, and the University of New Mexico. The community around Kirtland constitutes a strong social network of military personnel, spouses, and family, while those around the labs and research institutes overlap somewhat with a social network of researchers, graduate students, science journalists, and other related parties. Both Albuquerque and Rio Rancho are among the fastest-growing cities in America. Albuquerque's initial growth spurt in the mid-20th century was due to Route 66 and to the establishment of many key institutions in the burgeoning atomic age, from Kirtland to the laboratories and testing grounds of the Trinity Project, which detonated the first atomic bomb. Atomic testing and research has continued in New Mexico, centered in the Albuquerque area, and there are strong educational, research, and scientific social networks with decades-long histories. The importance of science to the area's culture and identity is summed up in the name of their minor-league baseball team: the Albuquerque Isotopes. Even the association of New Mexico with such fringe science enthusiasts as the UFO-Area 51 conspiracy theorists depends in some part on the strength of the state's scientifically minded social networks.

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