President Donald Trump released a video on Saturday in which he again pressed for the renaming of New Mexico to “New America.”
The president made the comment in a video endorsing Greg Cunningham, Republican candidate for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. Trump called the renaming of the state a “beautiful change” and added that local voters should lead the effort, not Washington, D.C.
“Hello, New America, formerly known as ‘New Mexico,’” Trump said at the start of the video.
Rob Martinez is the state historian of New Mexico. He says the state’s name has been a part of its history for over 500 years, beginning with the Aztec people, and it’s not the first time a change has been proposed.
“We've been named New Mexico in English since the mid 1800s, but in Spanish, we've been Nuevo Mexico since the 1500s, long before there ever was the United States of America,” he said. “New Mexico had been explored by the Spanish in the 1500s.”
Martinez went on to say that the state’s name — and the inspiration for its name — had been in dispute multiple times over the years.
“By the 1560s or so, there’s exploration by soldiers and priests, and they decided that this area was going to be called ‘La Nueva Mexico,’ named after the city of Mexico; La Ciudad de Mexico. Mexico is a Spanishized, Hispanicized version of Mexica, the Aztec people,so it's a Native American word. So that's where we get our name,” he added. “It’s initially La Nueva Mexico, feminine after the Ciudad, which is feminine, La Ciudad de Mexico. But by the 1600s, we're Nuevo Mexico.”
When New Mexico became a state in 1912, some people didn't want the association with Mexico, so some people suggested Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, but that would have still connected the state to Mexico. Others suggested Lincoln as a name. Around that time, there was an attempt to bring New Mexico and Arizona together as one state, according to the National Archives.
“When we became part of the United States in 1848, we're wrenched, we're torn from our Spanish and Mexican heritage, but it's still there. It's strong because we didn't immigrate. We didn't move to the United States. We did not immigrate to the United States. The United States came to us. They invaded us, conquered us, colonized us. So we have a different take,” Martinez said. “We didn't decide to leave our heritage and our past behind.”
The state’s top historian also shared that when New Mexico became a state in 1912, “our constitution, our state constitution, says the name of this state is New Mexico. It’s in our constitution. No president can change it. Doesn’t matter how much he wants to change it, he cannot change it. Only the people of New Mexico can change it. And from what I’m hearing and reading as the state historian, the people here do not want to change it.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham responded to Trump’s video with a written statement, as well:
"New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed. What is up for debate? Who’s showing up for working families.”
She characterized Trump’s move as trying to “distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran,” “soaring” gas prices and loss of healthcare coverage.
“While the White House wastes time coloring on maps, Nuevo México is busy doing the work,” the statement concluded.
It’s the latest effort by Trump to change the name of something, after changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
