Impressions of Santa Fe trip... (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: how much, hotels, Home Depot)

[cloudcroft]

gabygirl,

You find conversations in Spanish "interesting" and I find them increasingly annoying!

Living here in Mexico -- I mean El Paso, TX, supposedly the USA -- I find the speaking of Spanish a definite negative...and if one does NOT speak Spanish, one's job/career options are almost zero. When I go to Santa Fe/Taos and hear it -- the last thing I want -- it reminds me of here. Fortunately, I usually hear English...a refreshing change from the Borderland.

I will be moving to NM and one requirement is to find a place where English is the norm, unlike here. Consequently, places like Cloudcroft, Ruidoso, White Rock and Los Alamos are on my very short list. Or many parts of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.

I just want to live in America but stay in the Southwest, but that is getting harder to find nowadays in this West Texas area, and lots of NM.

-- John D.

[LLD]

I think the Spanish language is one of the most beautiful in the world. I grew up in Texas and never thought anything of hearing both English and Spanish. English is the technical language of the world and most everyone for lots of other countries that wants to participate on the world stage in technology learns English.

And guess what -- countries in Europe pretty much requite their kids to learn English too in lots of the schools. They also tend to learn some conversational language of their border countries -- it's called being smart for goodness sakes!!

The Canadians haven't beome France even though Quebec is French speaking. And everytime I go to Mexico, more and more people are speaking English -- hmmmm... guess they figured it was a smart thing to do especially with all the tourism etc. I haven't heard anyone in Mexico bitching about learning English in their tourist areas though.

Spanish is part of the heritage and history of many states, especially in the Southwestern U.S. Immigrants and their descendants all over the US speak some home country languages -- I hear lots of different Asian dialects all the time.

I don't think there is any danger of English going away. The US is a melting po and nothing wrong with that! I LOVE the diversity and all the various cultures that have come here and melded into this huge soup.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by cloudcroft

gabygirl,

You find conversations in Spanish "interesting" and I find them increasingly annoying!

Living here in Mexico -- I mean El Paso, TX, supposedly the USA -- I find the speaking of Spanish a definite negative...and if one does NOT speak Spanish, one's job/career options are almost zero. When I go to Santa Fe/Taos and hear it -- the last thing I want -- it reminds me of here. Fortunately, I usually hear English...a refreshing change from the Borderland.

I will be moving to NM and one requirement is to find a place where English is the norm, unlike here. Consequently, places like Cloudcroft, Ruidoso, White Rock and Los Alamos are on my very short list. Or many parts of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.

I just want to live in America but stay in the Southwest, but that is getting harder to find nowadays in this West Texas area, and lots of NM.

-- John D.

Living in a bordertown, you cannot expect but to hear both English and Spanish spoken on a daily basis. I grew up hearing both, so I don't think anything about it--and I'm anglo, too.

Most of the towns you listed are majority white/anglo--so you can expect to hear mostly English, especially Los Alamos/Whiterock/Ruidoso. I don't know about Cloucroft, though.

English isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[LLD]

Living in a bordertown, you cannot expect but to hear both English and Spanish spoken on a daily basis. I grew up hearing both, so I don't think anything about it--and I'm anglo, too.

ditto on that for me

[cloudcroft]

That's fine, some of you here have your pro-diversity views, I have my anti-diversity views.

So I'm just stating the OTHER side of the issue here for the record and for balance: Some people don't like what's happening to America (and language is only part of it, believe me).

But you know, they don't have to.

To each his/her own,

-- John D.

[Phylos]

I'm of mixed descent myself and only speak english...sometimes its frustrating when someone tries speaking to me in spanish or another response I get is that I don't look like i'm from the US wtf is that...I'm american born and raised. But yeah I can see both sides, I like diversity and am all for it but then you also have the stubborn people who are still stuck in the past and are culture exclusive meaning they don't like to participate into developing themselves further to evolve into a unified community and that type of ignorance doesn't fly with me and it goes both ways if you know what I mean. Wait what was this thread about again? haha

[TKO]

Originally Posted by Phylos

I'm of mixed descent myself and only speak english...sometimes its frustrating when someone tries speaking to me in spanish or another response I get is that I don't look like i'm from the US wtf is that...I'm american born and raised. But yeah I can see both sides, I like diversity and am all for it but then you also have the stubborn people who are still stuck in the past and are culture exclusive meaning they don't like to participate into developing themselves further to evolve into a unified community and that type of ignorance doesn't fly with me and it goes both ways if you know what I mean. Wait what was this thread about again? haha

Nice post and made me laugh. I'm not of mixed decent racially, but my dad's family are germans from Mexico City. I lived in latin america a lot as a child and speak relatively good spanish. Here in Cruces, my office gets a regular stream of recent immigrant/spanish speakers. They'll be talking to my secretary and you should see the look on their faces when I chime right in. AFter the initial shock most are very pleased that a "gringo" speaks spanish. I take pleasure in it too. But I do stress, if the occassion permits, that they would benefit greatly from learning a second language too.

[cloudcroft]

Well, moving on from the language issue (partly to avoid any bloodshed here if you will)...


As mentioned, I have been looking at the Santa Fe area as a possible place for relocation. And as most people here probably know, that part of NM has a higher cost-of-living than places in the S.E. part of the state.

For specific example, Los Alamos (LA) and White Rock (WR) are or almost are twice as expensive as their S.E. NM (elevation-wise) counterparts Ruidoso (R) and Cloudcroft (C), although utilities seem to cost less in LA and WR (I bet the electric bills would probably less than here in El Paso!) which is a nice break. Unfortunately, R & C don't have much in the way of apartments as LA and WR do...and nice places at that, too, despite the expense. R & C have very few apartments, and pretty ratty ones at that. Otherwise, house purchases/rentals are the only real choice.

But if one doesn't want to rent a house (for several reasons) R & C are pretty much disqualified as a relocation area. Cedar Crest, NM, another higher-elevation community, is the worst I found so far for someone looking for an apartment...it's a "bedroom community" and nothing but houses there...to buy or rent. Zero apartments there to my knowledge. Seems like someone building a real nice apartment complex in Cedar Crest -- or R & C -- would have no problem filling their vacancies! Living in Alamogordo would be a possibility with all their apartments, and R & C would still be close by, buy it's in the flatlands.

As for Santa Fe, plenty of apartments to choose from...just the higher rents but not too much worse ($200-300?) per month than the nicer apartments available in Albuquerque/Rio Rancho area...but almost twice as much rent as apartments here in El Paso. And I'm not sure what the crime problem pattern would look like drawn on a street-map of Santa Fe.

So, it seems to be more difficult in a way, for a single person (or perhaps a couple) to find a nice apartment...at least in those higher-elevation "bedroom" communities.

-- John D.

[tito]

I have visited Santa Fe a couple of years ago and I found it very interesting but I wouldn't live there. First of all, because it's ridiculously expensive and secondly, it's a tourist site like Cancun, Saint Thomas, Martinique, Tahiti, Honolulu or Epcot Center. I like it as such though, to the point that I'm going back there to show it to my girl friend who lives in Paris and who has never seen anything like it. I didn't think that as a Parisian she would have been impressed by New York or San Francisco. I think that Santa Fe is uniquely American.

[_redbird_]

I am Native American, actually I am injin ( , sorry bad joke. I have a friend who is a silversmith and the students of AIAI (American Indian Arts Institute) are making jewelry that is stunning nowadays. I had never dreamed of such new ways to make jewelry. They have a museum of artwork/paintings, etc made by the students. You should check it out.
A bit of history, my tribe has been going to SF since the 1700's to trade with other tribes. It was a unique place where old tribal wars were placed by the wayside while trading. I believe it was the site of peace made between the Kiowa nd Comanche, who both had been visiting the same person. When the warriors got up to fight, the trader brokered a peace between the two tribes. Bit of history there.
Now, who's in favor of spanglish as officio langua de americas? DOH!!!! another red mark for me!!! Just kidding folks!!!!!!!!