There is no easy answer to what constitutes the Anglo population of New Mexico. In this state everyone who is not Hispanic or Native American is considered to be an “anglo”. This of course includes a wide group of people that basically have very little in common except that their native language is English. It could even include many younger Hispanics who are, for all practical purposes, unable to speak Spanish.
Anglos are the majority of the state’s population. Only in the northern counties and in the Navaho country will one find non-anglo majorities amongst the local populations. Anglos also hold or control the lion’s share of the wealth and private property in the state. This was not always so.
English speakers began filtering into the northern area of the state in the very early 1800′s while New Mexico was still part of the Spanish Empire. They were fur trappers and traders and followed close on the heels of French Canadians who were in the same lines of occupation. Many of them settled down in New Mexico, married hispanic women and their descendants are part of the Hispanic community today. After the Mexican-American War there was a greater influx of English speakers that came in as part of the movement of Texas cattle ranching into the territory. Later many more came in as miners and railroaders. Others as moved in as farmers who took advantage of the Homestead Act.By the early 1900′s English speakers were the majority population in most of the eastern New Mexican counties. This area is still called “Little Texas” by inhabitants of the rest of the state even though most of the English speaking immigrants were not from Texas.
A very large influx of Anglos came about during and after the Second World War. The many defense related projects brought in huge numbers of people from other areas of the United States, with Albuquerque alone growing in size from less than 50,000 before the war to more than 200,000 by the early 1960′s. This trend has continued unabated and got a real boost when the entertainment crowd “discovered” New Mexico and, for all practical purposes, ruined the Santa Fe and Taos areas. The high tech industries brought in many more inhabitants from other states as well.
Some of the traditional cultural and social barriers between Anglos, Hispanics, and Native Americans are breaking down with quite a bit of intermarriage being the result. In the old days when English speakers married into the Hispanic or Native American societies the result was that they were absorbed into the local cultures. This has come full turn now and when there is intermarriage the non-anglo partner almost always joins the English speaking majority. This is especially true for Native Americans, as living on the reservations with non Native partners is discouraged to say the least by most tribal governments. And probably with good reason.
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