Red or Green?
How New Mexico got her Famous State Question
By Dr. Terra Liddil
Fall is a magical season in northern New Mexico. The cool autumn nights, brilliant blue skies, and bright golden leaves bring a welcome change. But mostly, fall means green chile.
In late August the scent of roasting chiles begins to permeate the air with a pungent, smoky aroma. Grocery store parking lots become home to 50-gallon wire cages where bags full of plump, shiny green chiles are roasted. Turned by hand over a gas fire, the chiles soon become blistered and charred, ready to be peeled. There is nothing like the acrid aroma of roasting green chiles that fills the air with the very essence of New Mexico autumn.
For centuries the chile pepper has been a central element in New Mexican culture. But it wasn’t always so. The chile pepper Let me tell you the story…
Some 8,500 years ago high on a mesa in the mountains of the Peruvian Andes, a tiny songbird pecks at a low bush covered in small, red berries. She collects bits of the plant in her sharp beak, and carries them to her nest. The berry seeds will pass through her system undigested, and she’ll scatter them far and wide across the land.
Meanwhile, not far away, in the Guitarrero Cave, 50 meters above the Rio Santa River, a woman prepares dinner of beans, maize, and aji chile pepper (capsicum baccatum), which she has gathered in her basket. *
Her people have discovered the aji chile from the bushes that grow wild, and live as long as 50 years. They use it to flavor and enhance their food. This small berry is also rich in nutrition, adding generous amounts of vitamins A, C, & E, potassium, and folic acid to their diet. What’s more, the heat contained in the seed and membranes of this little pod can effectively produce an endorphin release, creating a pleasant sense of well-being! By 4000 BC, the woman’s descendants will have learned to cultivate the plant alongside their maize and beans.
From people to people … Incans, Mayans, Aztecs … and scattered by birds across the mountains and valleys … the little chile plant gradually moves up through Central America into Mexico, and even across to the Caribbean islands.
Being a prolific and adaptable cultivar, it modifies itself to fit the various climates and geographies it comes to. With changing altitude, soil, temperature, and rainfall, the chile plant develops many varieties along the way. The natives learn to cultivate the chiles and use them for both cooking and medicine. By the time Columbus arrives in 1492, the Aztecs have already developed the jalapeno, poblano, pasilla, and serrano chiles and know which dishes they combine with best.
Columbus sets sail from Portugal in search of the coveted black pepper (“black gold”) of India’s southern coast. When he reaches the Caribbean Islands, he believes he has reached India. He calls the people “Indian” and their spicy chile a “pepper”. On January 15, 1492 he writes in his log about the aji pepper, “which is more valuable than the [black] pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being very wholesome…”
He assigns a crew member, Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca, to bring the first chile peppers to Spain. Within decades, the wildly popular chile has spread around the world—India, East Asia, Africa.
Soon there is even confusion about its source, prompting some Europeans to travel to Asia in search of its origins. To this day, there is little awareness of the humble origins of this famous chile pepper. Although each region and country has its own variety, all are derived from the original capsicum plant of the Andes.
Ironically, it is the Spaniards who bring the chile pepper to New Mexico. Decades before the Mayflower carries settlers to the east coast of America (1620), Spanish explorers are venturing north from Mexico along the Rio Grande.
A member of Antonio Espejos’ expedition into New Mexico in 1582 writes in his journal, “They have no chile, but the natives were given some to plant.”
From this passage, historians have deduced that chile was not grown in New Mexico prior to the Spanish arrival. And we learn that the little chile pepper has traveled from the New World to the Old World, and back again.
Pueblo Natives quickly take to the chiles, and begin growing new varieties among their maize, beans and squash. Up and down the Rio Grande River Valley fields of chile are grown, irrigated by the river waters through intricate systems of acequias. The chile pepper quickly becomes an essential ingredient in the regional diet.
Combining Spanish, Mexican, and Pueblo influences, the unique food of New Mexico is born, with the chile pepper taking center stage.
For over 400 years New Mexicans have treasured this magical food, which has become the heart and soul of the culture. The distinctive flavors and colors of New Mexican cooking are largely imparted by this delicious pepper ... all from a simple aji berry scattered by birds thousands of years ago.
As for red or green, the difference is time on the vine. Like tomatoes, green chiles ripen into red chiles. A red chile is simply a mature form of the green. The earthy sweetness of the green chile deepens and mellows as it ages to red. Green chiles are usually roasted and peeled for cooking. Red chiles may also be roasted, and are more commonly ground into a powder. Temperatures in northern New Mexico are cooler than in the south. The chiles mature sooner, and red chiles are more abundant. Southern New Mexico is famous for green chiles, like Hatch. But red and green both grow throughout the state. If you go to the Las Vegas Farmer’s Market in late August and early September, you’ll find green chiles grown in fields that have produced them for generations.
Red or green? When in doubt, go with Christmas.
*Concluded by 1960 archaeological discovery of textiles, wood & leather tools, and basketry as well as evidence of domesticated beans, chile, maize and other cultivars in the Guitarrero cave dating over 10,000 years.