New Mexico
Tortillas fall flat in New Mexico, but will California add Bigfoot to its list of state symbols?
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A proposal to designate the tortilla as New Mexico’s official state bread had unanimous support from lawmakers. On Friday, though, it ended up falling flat.
It wasn’t because Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham isn’t a fan of the round wraps that have long been a staple of Mexican, Central American and Southwestern U.S. cooking. It was because she believes lawmakers missed opportunities to debate bills that deal with weightier matters as the state faces extraordinary challenges.
”Of course, I enjoy celebrating our unique culture,” she wrote in her veto message, ticking off numerous official state symbols and songs that New Mexico has adopted over the years.
”The question should not be how many more symbols we can collect — but whether we are meeting the moment with the gravity it demands,” she continued. ”We are living in perilous and unprecedented times. The stakes for our state have never been higher.”
New Mexico’s lawmakers were hardly alone in wanting to pad their state’s list of symbols this legislative season. Georgia lawmakers recently passed a bill to recognize cornbread as their state’s official bread. The Oregon Legislature, meanwhile, is considering adopting the T-bone steak as an official symbol. And there’s a proposal in California to name Bigfoot the state’s official cryptid — a creature that has never been proven to exist.
Legislating isn’t always about taxes, tariffs and other serious issues. Lawmakers sometimes yearn for levity and the rare chance to find common ground.
With the push to adopt the tortilla, which was proposed by Las Cruces fourth-grader Adaline McIntosh, lawmakers debated the kinds of flour needed for the perfect specimen. Their conclusion: It depends on the meal. They also got a history lesson from state Sen. Benny Shendo, a member of Jemez Pueblo tribe who explained that the first bread in what is now New Mexico was made by Pueblo people who cooked blue corn paste on a hot stone.
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