Opinion

Wagyu beef and cocaine hot dogs

Over the past few months, New Mexico has been getting quite a lot of media attention for unfortunate reasons, including a recent biker gang shootout in Red River over Memorial Day weekend, a Sonic hot dog found with a bag of cocaine in it, and Democrats’ extremist abortion up-to-birth policies, to name a few. 

Jeffrey David Salazar, 54, of Española, faces felony charges after he “lost” his bag of cocaine during his shift at Sonic, where a woman found the drug bag in her hot dog.

“(Salazar) stops cooking and appears to be frantically searching the area as if he lost something,” a detective wrote in the affidavit.

This made national news

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s move to try and ban localities from halting abortions in their communities and pushing “gender-affirming care” on children via H.B. 7 recently made national news also – further enshrining New Mexico as the abortion capital of the United States. This sad record was affirmed by another bill that will harbor criminal abortionists in New Mexico who are wanted in other states.

A biker gang’s recent shootout in Red River, killing three and injuring at least five, made national news also, with Democrats almost in unison, using the dispute to push for extreme anti-gun laws. It splashed the headlines of national news outlets for days.

These are just national headlines from the past few weeks — not counting the other horrible things New Mexico is now known for under far-left, failed leadership that has failed to prevent such tragic stories.

We also make national headlines about our most prolific export — box-checking Washington, D.C. bureaucrats like Deb Haaland, who can’t even form a coherent sentence in a U.S. House or Senate hearing, much less run a federal agency. More national shame and embarrassing headlines.

Instead of helping quell the illegal drug trade in New Mexico, Democrats have repeatedly refused to increase sentences for drug possession and trafficking, even fentanyl — leading to “COCAINE HOT DOG” being plastered across even international headlines as far-reaching as India

Democrats couldn’t stand not having any protections whatsoever for babies, women, or doctors, as passed in a 2021 law legalizing abortion up to birth. They wanted to push abortions and transgender surgeries/hormone blockers on children also. Now, New Mexico is Texas’ back-alley abortion mill.

And instead of New Mexico legislators passing laws preventing crime by punishing thugs who break the law, three are now dead due to the recent Red River shootout. 

In recent years, New Mexico has grabbed national headlines for things such as Democrats working to weaken the state’s election laws to open the floodgates to fraud, Albuquerque Police officers fleeing the state amid anti-police policies, as well as the governor’s lavish spending on booze and Wagyu beef, not to mention her $150,000 crotch grab payout to a former campaign staffer. 

Other headlines focus on New Mexico’s worst education system in the entire country, the state’s wide-open southern border, deadly crime statistics, and the worst state for drug use in the entire country.

By electing the same people and the same failed weak-on-crime, anti-moral “leaders,” New Mexico will remain in the same sad place, with headlines focusing on our failures instead of our successes, which are few.

People need to start waking up, or else we will remain in the cadaver state (for all the children we kill via abortion, not to mention those being slaughtered through assisted suicide), biker gang shootouts, taxpayer-funded Wagyu beef steaks, and, embarrassingly, cocaine hot dogs. 

We can do many things to start fixing New Mexico, including signing a referendum petition to help stop the extremist laws recently passed in the 2023 Legislature, making sure not to stay home during ANY election, staying informed by reading what is happening in New Mexico in places like the Piñon Post, and by seizing upon every opportunity to take action in the state. 

It can be as simple as sending an email to a lawmaker or more involved, such as knocking on doors to support your local anti-Critical Race Theory school board candidate. It’s not that hard. We need to fight even harder to reclaim this state because it is a very achievable goal. We love New Mexico. Now, let’s fight for it.

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Democrat state senator silenced popular legislation

Resolutions calling for a convention of the states under Article V of the U.S. Constitution were introduced in the 2023 New Mexico Legislature: Senate Joint Resolution 5 (S.J.R. 5) and House Joint Resolution 13 (H.J.R. 13).  Common Cause New Mexico, a special interest pressure group, proudly claims credit in their fundraising letters for stopping them.

I reside in New Mexico state Senate District 10, whose senator, Katy Duhigg, chairs the Senate Rules Committee to which S.J.R. 5 was referred.  A former State Vice-Chair of Common Cause New Mexico, Duhigg refused to schedule SJR5 for a hearing, taking it upon herself to stifle the process and bury a piece of legislation her organization doesn’t like.

By its 2022 national survey, the Trafalgar Group found that over two-thirds of American voters support calling for an Article V Convention of States to propose amendments that 1) limit federal spending, 2) limit federal power, and 3) impose term limits on members of Congress and federal officials.  In fact, over 18,000 New Mexicans have signed petitions and demonstrated active support for holding a convention.

Duhigg’s tactic of intentionally not scheduling a matter assigned to her committee by the senate leadership is a mishandling of power and an affront to any lawmaker who brings any legislation forward in good faith.  The facts of the Trafalgar poll confirm the citizens of New Mexico and Senate District 10 deserve better.

Opinions expressed by Piñon Post contributors do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the publication or its editorial staff. Submit an op-ed to the Piñon Post at news@pinonpost.com.

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Heinrich desecrates Memorial Day, uses holiday to promote abortion

On Memorial Day, most public officials used the somber holiday to honor and remember the fallen U.S. soldiers who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country’s freedoms. 

However, that did not stop New Mexico’s far-left Democrat U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich from politicizing the day to promote his radical abortion stance.

“Service members and their families are stationed according to need. That means 40% of active-duty servicewomen live in states that have banned or restricted abortion,” he wrote on Twitter.

“We have a bill that will make sure they have access to reproductive care, regardless of where they live.” 

New Mexicans responded as expected, with Ronnie Lucero of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly writing in reply, “It’s Memorial Day and this guy is talking about killing babies.” 

Another wrote, “You are disgusting. Speaking about abortion rights on Memorial Day. I don’t think the unborn fought and died for our freedom. DISGUSTING!” 

“When you think @MartinHeinrich couldn’t sink any lower on a day of remembering the ones that served and sacrificed. He [somehow] sabotages this day. By mixing abortion into this day of remembrance,” wrote another New Mexican.

One person opined, “Never miss an opportunity even if it’s disgusting.  Then again you are what you tweet!!!”

Heinrich supports unrestricted abortion up to the date of birth. He is running for a third term in his seat amid rumblings he is trying to position himself for the governorship in 2026, as incumbent abortion up-to-birth Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, is term-limited. 

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Cartel continues treating illegal migrants like cash cows of human meat

The cartel continues to treat illegal immigrants they are smuggling into the United States as nothing more than cargo of human meat, each smuggling — whether successful or unsuccessful — paying approximately $8,000 each to get across the border and into America.

Over the weekend, the U.S. Border Patrol chief for the El Paso Sector, Chief Anthony Good, announced 54 illegal immigrants were found in a “stash house” in Santa Teresa (Doña Ana County, New Mexico) in “deplorable” conditions.

The Chief wrote that the Santa Teresa “Anti-Smuggling Unit, #ElPaso Sector Integrated Targeting Team & @txDPSWest encountered 54 migrants inside a local stash house living in deplorable conditions.”

According to the announcement, six illegal immigrants “were found to have prior removal orders and will be prosecuted accordingly.”

Photos from the scene show rows of migrants sitting along the front of the house surrounded by trash and debris.

Inside the house, similar scenes show illegal immigrants packed into a tiny room with only three mattresses lying on the ground along with trash surrounding them. 

The New York Post reports, “Saturday’s case is only the latest example of undocumented migrants living in squalor after crossing the border. The Texas Department of Public Safety and Customs and Border Patrol announced last month that more than 140 immigrants were found living in similar conditions across the state.”

“Officials said during last month’s raids, one house had as many as 95 migrants in it, while another was packed with more than 50 people.”

As the border crisis continues to ravage border regions, Title 42, which helped alleviate the immigration catastrophe lapsed last Thursday, appearing to create a new boom of illegal immigration into the country, with the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas feeling the hardest hits. 

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive immigration fix Thursday, but every Democrat representative rejected it. Joe Biden has promised to veto the measure if it reaches his desk, a further sign the border crisis shall continue with renewed human suffering at scenes such as in Santa Teresa.

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Is woke feminism the new patriarchy?

I have lived long enough to experience the second wave (the 1970’s) and third wave (current) of “feminism.”   The second wave, overall, might have brought about some positive changes, at least temporarily, including an inclination towards more natural childbirth; less overall pharmaceutical medication; an increase in alternative and herbal medicine; and more societal support for women who were experiencing domestic violence, but the underbelly was ugly.

The underbelly of the second wave included a generation of young girls who were being encouraged to “Lay Lady Lay” by Bob Dylan and dozens of other musicians, including the Beatles, Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix. Love, commitment, marriage, and responsibility were now old-fashioned and “stuffy.” None of us wanted to be compared to fifties housewife archetypes such as June Cleaver (she seemed really happy now that I think of it).

 Planned Parenthood –rooted in racism and eugenics—had infiltrated all of America.  Abortions were promoted as “nothing, really,” and “the pill” was popped by my teenage female friends like candy.   If you didn’t sleep around–with all your “freedom” to abort or prevent pregnancy–while simultaneously smoking pot and being a Foxy Lady–you weren’t “hip.”   Mindlessly giving our young bodies away to men while both parties were under the influence of drugs and mind control music was the new norm. 

Also, in the 1970s, flag burning was interwoven with the advancing feminist agenda.  We were convinced to hate America.  As a teenager under the influence of MSM and repeatedly watching on TV the napalm bombing of women and children in Vietnam, I thought it was cool when in 1972, Jane Fonda stuck a flower in the gun of a Vietnamese soldier in Hanoi.

 Like all good liberals of my generation, I hated the Vietnam War (who doesn’t hate war) but blamed America exclusively.   But many of the facts behind the American invasion were hidden from the public.  I understand now that globally, the motivation for war is often drug and arms trafficking (i.e., profiteering), acquisition of slaves, natural resources, land, power, and profit for the global elite and is more of a cold war, Vatican, Rockefeller, Rothschild, CIA global Deep State issue, than exclusively an American one. Unless fought on your own soil, by your own military, war is rarely fought for freedom. 

Moving forward,  the newest wave of “feminism”—which is woke, which means, in part, you stay in your head and do as you are told by mainstream media ( which repeats the second wave, 1970’s format of social conditioning but on steroids with the proliferation of social media, which white billionaire men mostly control)—has, in my opinion, come full circle to become what we all said we hated the most—the “patriarch”—but also,  in its fruition, exposing the feminist movement from the onset, as a massive patriarchal psychological operation out to destroy women and families, babies, and ultimately, humanity.  

The anti-female, anti-human transgender, pro-abortion ( horrifically, up to birth) movement (as well as the deadly vaccine agenda) are deeply interwoven in feminism and heavily promoted by “feminists” such as Jane Fonda and AOC and hundreds more, especially on the radical Progressive Left. 

 It is also possible that a large population of young female Democrats who have unhealed trauma because of the first wave of feminism (and the resulting skyrocketing divorces and single-family households) are putty in the hands of the manipulative trauma-based mainstream media. 

In essence, The CIA and the Mockingbird Media are still using women, just like they used CIA agents Gloria Steinem and Yoko Ono in the 1970s and many more of us, as pons to promote this newer, even more, deadly version of feminism.

And so here we have a point, which was the point all along, to a degree, of feminism, at least from the top down, was transhumanism and transgenderism; the ultimate dissolution of the importance of the feminine, of women.  Mentally ill and traumatized millennial men, as part of the feminist movement, now say they are women and can give birth to children. 

 It was not enough to convince us to give up our bodies to loveless romance and our babies to abortion in the 1970s, now women are irrelevant.  We don’t even exist. Radical feminism wants to convince us that men are women, and these new hybrids (like Dylan Mulvaney) are stronger, faster, smarter, hipper, less “racist,” and less “misogynistic” than us regular women.

 The transgender movement is not about helping transgenders (of which there is a very small true amount and called “two spirits” by the Native Americans), but it is the elimination of real women, as we, healed and whole, are the greatest threat to corruption on the entire planet. 

It’s not all bad.  Just like in Rome, these systems will fall and self-destruct once we have reached the heights of hedonism. The curtain hiding the real criminals is slowly being pulled back.  The answer lies in our hearts and God and our highest powers.  Our God-given gut instinct and detaching from public figures and mainstream media will help us retrieve our strength, power, and direction.  

Both of my grandmothers had a life with much more love, peace, security, happiness, and joy than I did and, so far, more than my own daughters. It’s time we start to ask “why.”

To read more about Jane Celia Hatch and her experience in the second wave of feminism and much more, please purchase her book The Land of Broken Crystals (And the Girl Who Knew Too Much), published by Trine Day Press and available in most major book outlets. 

Opinions expressed by Piñon Post contributors do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the publication or its editorial staff. Submit an op-ed to the Piñon Post at news@pinonpost.com.

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Scathing ABQ Journal editorial NUKES Dems’ sniveling over Holtec’s green light

A recent editorial from the Albuquerque Journal’s editorial board ripped opponents of Holtec International’s safe temporary spent fuel storage facility a new one. 

This week, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted a license to Holtec International for the multi-billion-dollar interim storage facility in Eddy and Lea Counties.

Democrat politicians whined and bellyached about the move, erroneously claiming the safe fuel storage facility would make New Mexico a “dumping ground” of spent “nuclear waste,” among other melodramatic rhetoric. 

The Democrats in New Mexico’s congressional delegation and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez complained about it.

The board wrote that these whining Democrats didn’t “offer any alternatives for the storage of spent commercial nuclear fuel.” 

It wrote that despite Democrats referencing S.B. 53 passed during the 2023 Legislative Session despite bipartisan opposition, Holtec will challenge the law trying to stymie the company’s operations, and it “will likely win.”

It continued, “Sen. Martin Heinrich said in a separate statement Tuesday no regulatory commission “should be using interim standards to approve indefinite storage” until there is a permanent repository for spent nuclear fuel. Fair point. But Heinrich, the rest of the state’s delegation, the governor and the AG conveniently do not mention the U.S. lacks a permanent storage site because their fellow Democrat, the late Sen. Harry Reid, blocked the truly permanent storage site in Yucca Mountain after Congress quite literally sank $15 billion of taxpayer money into what is now the most expensive, empty parking garage in America. So there is nowhere to transfer more than 70,000 metric tons of used reactor fuel from commercial power plants at 73 sites across 39 states — even though U.S. law requires one. How about enforcing that law?” 

The board concluded with the following: 

Heinrich ended his statement: “New Mexicans didn’t sign up for this.”

Except many have. Give Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway or Hobbs Mayor Sam Cobb a call. They’ll fill you in on the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance that southeastern New Mexico leaders formed in 2006 and the thousand acres of remote cattle grazing land ELEA bought expressly for Holtec between Carlsbad and Hobbs. And then there are the nuclear experts who work in our three national labs and at WIPP and Urenco.

It’s time for state leaders to put their politics aside, recognize the science and the scary fact we have spent nuclear waste sitting on water tables across the country, and support the bridge carbon-neutral nuclear power offers. And it’s time for our delegation in D.C. to move beyond cheap partisan sound bites and actually do something about safely storing nuclear waste.

Now that the Holtec International project is a go, there is nothing the seething Democrats can do about the facility that will provide safe interim storage while bringing billions of dollars in investment to New Mexico. 

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Governor accuses schools of ‘exploiting’ funds as ‘free’ college program backfires

After incentivizing New Mexico public colleges to raise tuition rates by subsidizing taxpayer-funded “free” college to the tune of $146 million this year, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration is now complaining about tuition hikes.

Last year, New Mexico State University announced an annual four percent increase in tuition, while the University of New Mexico hiked tuition rates by three percentage points. Western New Mexico University increased its tuition and fees by eight percent, while Eastern New Mexico University’s tuition remains flat. 

Lujan Grisham’s Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez urged college regents and trustees “to keep tuition flat this year in the best interest of students and taxpayers. We are witnessing enrollment increases for the first time in over a decade and substantial investments in higher education compared to the rest of the country.” 

“These historic investments are meant to directly benefit students by funding their education and reducing the portion of operational costs passed along to students, not an opportunity to exploit state funding to increase college and university revenues through more tuition and fees.”

This year’s budget passed during the 2023 Legislative Session was a 94.7 percent increase from last year’s $75 million, essentially no strings attached, spending on “free” college programs. 

Gov. Lujan Grisham speaking at the Roundhouse about the Opportunity Scholarship (taxpayer-funded ‘free’ college).

The increases in tuition costs by state universities can be directly correlated to the increase in state funds they are getting through the so-called Opportunity Scholarship. The colleges are very much “exploiting” state funding, as Rodriguez claimed, because there are no safeguards in the Democrat legislation that would cap funding or subsidize only certain fields of study needed in the job market. 

Now, a New Mexico student could get their entire useless “gender studies” degree entirely paid for by the state’s taxpayers despite its ineffectuality.

If the state will pay for even more of the cost of tuition, then it is in the colleges’ best financial interest to raise rates since that would mean more money coming to the institutions on the backs of taxpayers. 

As the state continues its costly multi-million-dollar experiment to fully subsidize state college costs for all residents (without any income caps or requirements, students are in the country legally), the price of a New Mexico degree will be even higher. 

This comes as New Mexico graduates leave the state in droves, now along with their 100 percent taxpayer-funded degrees — another lost investment by the state’s taxpayers. 

New Mexico’s K-12 educational programs remain the lowest in the nation.

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CYFD, the nation’s most expensive paid mourners

MLG and CYFD perpetuate New Mexico’s family crisis

New Mexico is ranked the fifth worst state for child abuse, the eighth worst for children’s healthcare, the ninth worst for children overweight or obese, and the worst for children’s food insecurity. Overseeing this debacle is Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and her New Mexico Children, Youth, and Family Department (CYFD), whose budget exceeds $368 million. They are the nation’s most expensive paid mourners.

I believe Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s CYFD is staffed with empathetic and compassionate individuals like herself (Which is why MLG won her elections). But empathy and compassion alone only perpetuate the misery of New Mexico’s families, not solve it. Today MLG’s CYFD is little more than expensive paid mourners wailing after another child’s death.    

MLG and CYFD did not create a crisis for New Mexico’s families. It is the Santa Fe Democrats, government officials, and professionals’ attitude toward child-raising, “It Takes a Village.” Their public school industry focuses on teaching their culture, molding students into their image, and deceiving parents about what they are doing. At the same time, they are failing in their mission to educate our children. Their medical industry: dispenses psychotropics, birth control, sex-changing drugs, and counseling with or without parental approval. When our children harm themselves or others and have a future of misery, they blame the parents and the parents’ culture. The definition of “It Takes a Village” is many pointing fingers, many mouths yelling, no brains, and no conscience.

It is time we return to the basics that made our country great.

Strong Mothers Liberals laughed every time Sarah Palin was quoted saying, “I’m a momma grizzly bear when it comes to my children.” Having backpacked in black, brown, and grizzly bear country, I knew a momma bear and her cub deserved particular respect. But first, we must teach our mothers how to defend themselves and their children. Then, mothers and wives can end the abuse.

Engaged Fathers Fatherless families have a substantially higher risk for poverty, behavioral problems, infant mortality, incarceration, teen pregnancy, abuse, and neglect. Every newborn’s birth certificate lists the father’s name. The government provides incentives to families where the father is engaged. Communities support fathers who never had a father that cared about them.   

Deserving Children Every child deserves to know who their father is, have a roof over their head, have food on the table, and have an education system that prepares them for a bright future. Education is not just reading, writing, and arithmetic; it is learning the responsibilities of citizens and the consequences of not abiding by the laws of our country.

God’s Grace Santa Fe democrats, government officials, and professionals have behaved like government money, and their all-knowing power was greater than God’s Grace. This fraud needs to be exposed. Parents must seat God at their table and bar their door against those that have destroyed New Mexico’s families.

Host, “To the Point with Mick Rich.” 2018 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate (NM). Founder & CEO, Mick Rich Contractors. Husband, father, grandfather. Read more from Mick Rich at MickRich.substack.com.

Opinions expressed by Piñon Post contributors do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the publication or its editorial staff. Submit an op-ed to the Piñon Post at news@pinonpost.com.

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Why does Holy Week seem so unholy?

This Holy Week reminds me why I became a Catholic.

My mother was raised a Lutheran, and my father a Catholic. My parents had long abandoned their faith when I was born, replacing God’s grace with their unrighteous vengeance. Unfortunately, I see that exact unrighteous vengeance today in our government and the institution we depend upon.   

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrested Donald Trump during Holy Week. Did Bragg believe he was slaying MAGA Supporters’ Messiah? They support Trump, knowing he is just a man with imperfections. Not MAGA supporters, but Bragg, that believe his political leader is a Messiah.

District attorneys do not prosecute violations of the law; they prosecute the violators. Bernalillo’s former District Attorney-turned-New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez did not prosecute the shooting of one victim nor the last drive-by shooting but only charged the violation of the law with Darian Bashir’s murdered famous UNM baseball player Jackson Weller. George Soros’ DAs play god on who and who not to punish. 

George Soros’ district attorneys do not prosecute violations of the law; they prosecute the violators. Then-DA Torrez did not prosecute the shooting of one victim, nor the last drive-by shooting, but only charged the violation of the law with Darian Bashir’s murdered famous UNM baseball player Jackson Weller. 

Democrat Leaders support the medical profession’s belief that they have the power to create males and females. Yet, despite the surgeries and chemicals, they cannot change that males have X-Y chromosomes and females have X-X chromosomes. In Mathew 19:4, Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female?’” Therefore, the medical profession is committing fraud upon its victims when they say, “We change your sex.”   

President Obama declared that 2008 “was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal.” Since then, the oceans have continued to rise despite the sacrifices of the American people and the resulting damage from environmentalist actions. Offshore wind turbines have resulted in the death of dozens of whales rotting on the New Jersey coast. Corn production for ethanol in the Midwest has washed fertilizers into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a toxic “Red Tide.” Only God could part the sea and return it to its natural level without environmental damage.    

Democrats have been removing the Ten Commandments from our public spaces on the pretext that it is a religious document. They believe they are wiser, fairer, and more compassionate than God could be. But all they have done is replace God’s grace with their unrighteous vengeance.

Despite my childhood experiences, I knew God had not abandoned me. Instead, God had placed individuals in my life to guide me until I could find my way. My mother recognized that I had arrived when she told me, “We worked so hard to raise you. Then you became a Catholic”.

During these challenging times, it is essential to stay close to God.

Host, “To the Point with Mick Rich.” 2018 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate (NM). Founder & CEO, Mick Rich Contractors. Husband, father, grandfather. Read more from Mick Rich at MickRich.substack.com.

Opinions expressed by Piñon Post contributors do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the publication or its editorial staff. Submit an op-ed to the Piñon Post at news@pinonpost.com.

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New Mexico’s new official state aroma

“​​The first condition of understanding a country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

The New Mexico Legislature rarely makes me laugh. This year they did. An article in the Santa Fe New Mexican notes that it passed a bill designating the aroma of fire-roasted green chile as the official New Mexico smell. Governor Michele Lujan Grisham signed the bill in Las Cruces on March 28, 2023.

While New Mexico is not a country, to understand New Mexico, you should appreciate the unique aroma of fire-roasted green chile. Importantly, the roasting smell only lasts thirty minutes, while eating Green Chile is an everyday pleasure.

Fire-roasting chile is when the outside waxy layer is quickly scorched with a flame to a char, allowing the removal of the outer skin without damaging the inside chile meat. The plant produces a waxy coating to keep moisture inside the chile pepper while it’s growing. Fire-roasting prepares the outer skin for removal and also gives the chile meat a fantastic smokey flavor.

As to what made me laugh, it was when discussing S.B. 188, one senator, a dairy farmer, noted the stuff sticking to his boots in the dairy barn happens to be the smell he associates most with New Mexico.

And friends, I know both the roasting smell and the cow pie smell. In fact, I am not revolted by either smell but prefer the green chile roasting over mucking out of a cow shed, which I have done more times than I care to remember.

S.B. 188, introduced by Senator Bill Soules (D-Las Cruces), lists the official New Mexico names for: flower, bird, tree, fish, animal, vegetables, gem, grass (not the intoxicant) fossil, cookie, insect, question, answer, nickname, butterfly, reptile, amphibian, aircraft, historic railroad, tie, necklace, and last but not least, aroma.

They forgot the New Mexico sound of Fire-Roasting. It is a white noise and could be on a white noise machine for going to sleep. During the next session, they could add a twenty-third designation, the sound of fire-roasting chile as the official New Mexico sound.

The New Mexico sound I recognize most often is the sound of wind moving swiftly across New Mexico as we hold onto our hats. One time the wind in New Mexico suddenly stopped, and about 500 ranchers all fell over at once. Another New Mexico sound is tumbleweeds being smashed by cars on roads. They are grilled tumbleweeds, though not edible.

While the pleasant smells of fire-roasting chile are mildly interesting to me, it is the tasting and eating of green and red chile that matters. There are certainly fewer calories for you to just sniff the air and comment on the texture and suitability of the chile smell. However great the smell is, it is not satisfying.

The pleasure of Southwestern cuisine and the delight of New Mexico is a plate of red or green enchiladas with tortillas. That is what spins my happy meter.

Finally, the impetus for making the smell of green chile roasting the official smell of New Mexico was the work of some Las Cruces elementary students. I hope the Las Cruces Public Schools puts in a program to teach all students how to plant and care for chile pepper plants. And to roast the peppers.

Throughout the school year, the school lunch program should offer green and red chile. The students will learn the answer to the official New Mexico question: Red or green? The Official New Mexico answer is: Red and green or Christmas, Let’s eat! Note: I added what’s important to that official answer.

Michael was born at Holloman Air Force Base outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico, his father a career Air Force photographer. He became a photographer at NMSU for the student Round-Up and the yearbook, where he was the head photographer from 1968-69. Later, he was the initial production manager when KRWG-TV went on the air in February 1972. In 1973, Michael was hired by KOB-TV. He has mixed a love of media with a love of education, having taught at Albuquerque High School, Doña Ana Community College, and the NMSU College of Education. Michael holds a Ph.D. in educational administration with a focus on distance learning. From a lifelong enjoyment of chile, he is happy writing and talking about it.

Opinions expressed by Piñon Post contributors do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the publication or its editorial staff. Submit an op-ed to the Piñon Post at news@pinonpost.com.

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