Is Las Cruces right for me? (live, law, moving)

[Tiger Beer]

I can't answer with Las Cruces in particular.

But I'm anglo-white...and also spent a year in South America picking up Spanish, etc. and I also enjoy being around the culture.

This is speaking from experience in New York, but I found that most spanish-speakers DO NOT like your average white person speaking to them in Spanish. Mainly because they do speak English or know quite a bit of English, and even though you are just practicing/using your Spanish, they tend to feel its a statement that they aren't American enough or that you assume they can't speak English.

ON THE OTHER HAND...I use to hangout all the time with this Ecuadorian guy...and he was bilingual, and every single time we went anywhere around spanish-speaking people, they would ALWAYS speak to him back in Spanish even though he would start the conversation in English. Oddly enough, if I interjected into the conversation and spoke some Spanish to the stranger, they'd always speak back to me in English.

Kinda strange dynamics with that I've noticed back in the U.S.

Once people actually know you though, I don't think they mind if you using/practicing your Spanish, etc. Just doesn't work with strangers and people you don't know yet.

[LasCruces_Bed_Breakfast]

You should totally visit old mesilla, New Mexico. Old Mesilla although technically a different city is part of Las Cruces and is a great place to stay. I stayed at a bed and breakfast there and it was great, check it out below:

CASADEROSIE - Las Cruces Bed and Breakfast, Mesilla http://www.casaderosie.com

The town of old mesilla is, las cruces, but just older. Very nice places though!

[blueriver25]

Originally Posted by tecpatl

If you have general pollen allergy issues you won't escape them in LC, especially in the spring. If it's just that particular tree you'll be fine, however. Right now the pollen counts are fairly high, and when the pecans and other field crops cut loose it will be stratospheric. The desert generates a lot of pollen as well as dust, and down in the Mesilla valley the green belt along the river generates a huge amount as plants revive for Springtime or mature in farmers fields.

What about ragweed? Has it invaded the valley as yet? My husband is severely allergic to it; but we'd love to move back to LC.

[jaxart]

Originally Posted by tecpatl

If you have general pollen allergy issues you won't escape them in LC

Sometimes a change in climate will alleviate allergies. I speak from experience. In my 20s I suffered mightily from allergic reactions to bermuda grass, which in El Paso was in every yard in those days. A move to the Gulf Coast and the high humidity cured me instantly, and upon returning later to live in El Paso for another eight years, I never had a return of the problem, although I made sure my new home had "hybrid" bermuda grass, which doesn't pollinate apparently. Later, while living in Austin, TX for 12 years, I managed to escape the "cedar fever" that plagued so many living there.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by blueriver25

What about ragweed? Has it invaded the valley as yet? My husband is severely allergic to it; but we'd love to move back to LC.

I don't know about LC, but it's giving me fits in Alamogordo; I'm living on Alavert D12 right now.

I would imagine that it is also prevalent in LC, as it was in nearby West Texas.

Yep....here you go:

New Mexico County Level Distribution for Ambrosia artemisiifolia (annual ragweed) | USDA PLANTS

[TKO]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

I can't answer with Las Cruces in particular.

But I'm anglo-white...and also spent a year in South America picking up Spanish, etc. and I also enjoy being around the culture.

This is speaking from experience in New York, but I found that most spanish-speakers DO NOT like your average white person speaking to them in Spanish. Mainly because they do speak English or know quite a bit of English, and even though you are just practicing/using your Spanish, they tend to feel its a statement that they aren't American enough or that you assume they can't speak English.

ON THE OTHER HAND...I use to hangout all the time with this Ecuadorian guy...and he was bilingual, and every single time we went anywhere around spanish-speaking people, they would ALWAYS speak to him back in Spanish even though he would start the conversation in English. Oddly enough, if I interjected into the conversation and spoke some Spanish to the stranger, they'd always speak back to me in English.

Kinda strange dynamics with that I've noticed back in the U.S.

Once people actually know you though, I don't think they mind if you using/practicing your Spanish, etc. Just doesn't work with strangers and people you don't know yet.

I think with recent immigrants you'd get that same reaction. But the hispanic/americans that I work and grew up with enjoy it very much. Their folks in particular used to love that I spoke spanish (lived in SA as a kid) wound up working in the kitchen of one their restaurants for a while all espanol. You would definitely find satisfaction on that front.

[WildWestDude]

Racial tensions seem high among young people. But that's true in most places in the US as the younger you are the more hot headed also. I also never had a problem although every so often someone might look at you in an "unusual" way.
I also speak spanish but refuse to speak it within our borders. Learned it and spoke it is Spain but I think our only language here is english and it should remain that way.

Anyway, as far as nature plenty of places to observe and explore especially if you like to hike and get out of the urban area. Wildlife is out there but its not right at your face.

As far as Mexico, its OK to go once you move here, but soon you realize its not worth the trip.
Unless you're young and into nightlife, there's not much there at least to these border towns.
Safety is always a concern, I always keep to myself and stay within a certain block radious and have not had problems but still I would not risk it too often. Nogales is the same but in no way worth the drive unless you want to do a weekend trip into Tuscon, Tombstone, Bisbee and Nogales.

The weather in this Borderplex region is the best in the US IMO

[TKO]

Originally Posted by WildWestDude

I also speak spanish but refuse to speak it within our borders. Learned it and spoke it is Spain but I think our only language here is english and it should remain that way.

Speaking another language doesn't have to be seen as advocating for it's adoption as ours. Think if folks in other countries did that when we traveled there. It wouldn't be any fun to go to Italy, say, if all the locals thought as you did. I'm also sure that no one has ever told you HAVE to speak spanish to accomplish official business, so I'm at a loss to understand such an inflexible position.

[tecpatl]

Wildwestdude, I have the same feelings as TKO about your rigid and rather odd vow not to speak Spanish in the USA. I'm not sure what the point is.
People in Northeast Spain often understand and speak French in a very routine way, as the French do on the other side of the border. Many or most European countries have a similar pattern, especially in areas near their borders.
If a version of Spanish has been routinely and regularly spoken in daily life in New Mexico since it became part of the United States, who are you to condemn this? When NM became part of the USA there were written conditions that safeguarded the culture and language of the land. Moving a border doesn't and shouldn't change that.
My next-door neighbor's family has been in S New Mexico since fleeing the Pueblo revolt of 1680. While the family continues to speak Spanish daily in their home and elsewhere, there is no-one I've known who has given more or loved their country more than this fine family.
La Senora, who recently passed away, lost two brothers (both of whom lied about their age to enlist) to war during the re-taking of the islands of the South Pacific. Their father died a few years earlier in a lost cause called Bataan. I'm pretty sure her siblings, and her father's, last words were prayers in New Mexican Spanish...does that make them any less American?

[WildWestDude]

Originally Posted by TKO

Speaking another language doesn't have to be seen as advocating for it's adoption as ours. Think if folks in other countries did that when we traveled there. It wouldn't be any fun to go to Italy, say, if all the locals thought as you did. I'm also sure that no one has ever told you HAVE to speak spanish to accomplish official business, so I'm at a loss to understand such an inflexible position.

Sure, I'll be helpful to a tourist but not to individuals that live here and don't or refuse to acknowledge what the rest of us have been speaking.
Don't forget we are a nation of no other where we all come from all parts of the world and decided long ago to speak english.....
In order to stay within the topic of Las Cruces and won't say more but will say those kinda of people do exist and that the OP can get the idea. I don't HAVE to do speak spanish especially for official business. They MUST and SHOULD learn english. END OF STORY FROM ME._