The Hispanos of New Mexico, also known as New Mexican Hispanics or Nuevomexicanos,[2] are Hispanic residents originating in the historical region of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, today the US state of New Mexico (Nuevo México), southern Colorado, and other parts of the Southwestern United States including Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Utah.

The descendants of these New Mexican settlers make up an ethnic community of more than 340,000 in New Mexico, with others throughout the historical Spanish territorial claim of Nuevo México.

Alongside Californios and Tejanos, they are part of the larger Hispanic community of the United States, who have lived in the American Southwest since the 16th century.

[12] Hispanos identify strongly with their Hispanic heritage, and have pride for their varying levels of Spanish and Indigenous ancestry, and are focused on their aforementioned New Mexican identity.

These Natives, called Genízaros, served as house servants, sheep herders, and in other capacities in New Mexico including what is known today as Southern Colorado well into the 1800s.

By the late 18th century, Genízaros and their descendants, often referred to as Coyotes, comprised nearly one-third of the entire population of New Mexico.

[12][18] In New Mexico, the predominant term for this ethnic group is hispano in Spanish and Hispanic in English, analogous to californio and tejano.

The exploitation of Spanish rule under Oñate caused nearly continuous attacks and reprisals from the nomadic Amer-Indian tribes on the borders, especially the Apache, Navajo, and Comanche peoples.

There were also major clashes between the Franciscan missionaries (brought to New Mexico to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity and Hispanicize them) and secular and religious authorities.

In 1680, the Native American groups that lived along the Rio Grande successfully rose against the Spanish colonizers in what became known as the Pueblo Revolt.

This Reconquista of New Mexico is reputed to have been bloodless and every year since then this statue of the Virgin Mary has been carried in procession through the City of Santa Fe to commemorate the event.

[20] The Revolt of 1837 in New Mexico caused the Hispanos to overthrow and execute the centrally appointed Mexican governor, demanding increased regional authority.

This revolt was defeated by Manuel Armijo, a fellow Hispano appointed by Mexico, which eased the people's concerns.

In 1846, during the Mexican–American War, the United States Army occupied the province, which caused the Taos Revolt, a popular insurrection in January 1847 by Hispanos and Pueblo allies against the occupation.

They sought to develop a class-based consciousness among local people through the everyday tactics of resistance to the economic and social order confronting common property land grant communities.

In 1861 the Confederacy claimed the southern tract as its own Arizona Territory and waged the ambitious New Mexico campaign in an attempt to control the American Southwest and to open up access to Union California.

The loss of land, the encroachment of Anglos and ensuing conflict led to a growth in ethnic identity among New Mexican Hispanos.

Contributions from both sides helped to improve the conditions of citizenship in the community, but social inequality between the Anglos and Hispanos remained.

For Spanish speakers, it evoked Spain, not Mexico, recalling images of a romantic colonial past and suggesting a future of equality in Anglo-dominated America.

The new term gave the impression that Spanish-Americans belonged to a true American political culture, making the established order appear all the more democratic.

Increased federal investment in the state, such as the Manhattan Project and the founding of Los Alamos, provided employment to Hispanos.

Several Hispano ethnographers, linguists, and folklorists studied both of these centers of population (particularly Rubén Cobos, Juan Bautista Rael and Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr.).

[30] According to DNA studies, Hispanos of New Mexico have significant proportions of Amerindian genes (between 30 and 40% of the Nuevomexicano genome) due to mixing between Spanish and Native Americans that occurred during the colonial era.

[34] In Old Town Albuquerque, the San Felipe de Neri Church, built in 1793, contains a Star of David on the left and right sides of the altar.

Researchers have found cemetery headstones in Northern New Mexico with Hebrew and Jewish symbols alongside those with Catholic crosses.

Michael Hammer, a research professor at the University of Arizona and an expert on Jewish genetics, said that fewer than 1% of non-Semites, but more than four times the entire Jewish population of the world, possessed the male-specific "Cohanim marker" (this is not carried by all Jews, but is prevalent among Jews claiming descent from hereditary priests).

[36] Bennett Greenspan, Family Tree DNA's founder, whose recent ancestors were Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe, also carries a Sephardic Y-chromosomal lineage, belonging to haplogroup J-M267.

New Mexico's annexation to the United States resulted in the establishment of a curio market, to which Hispanic weavers adjusted their production.

During this period, the Anglo-American market was interested in Native American collectables, and as a result weavers incorporated many Amerindian designs into their weavings.

[51]: 75, 81 Per exit polls by the Associated Press for the 2020 United States presidential election, much of Joe Biden's strength in New Mexico came from Latino voters, from whom he garnered 61% of the vote.