Review: How Chile Came to New Mexico, Bilingual Book by Rudolfo Anaya, Nasario Garcia, Nicolas Otero

Botanists characterize chile peppers -- which also are spelled chili peppers and chilli peppers -- as the fruits of edible plants in the genus Capsicum and the nightshade family Solanaceae. They consider the edibles’ spiciness as deriving from the presence of the active component capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) and related capsaicinoids. They describe the hot-tasting foodstuffs as longstanding components of ancient diets in what now is Latin America. Archaeologists indeed find evidence of chile peppers going back to no later than 7500 B.C. They hypothesize the herbaceous plant’s domestication by human cultivators as occurring no later than 4000 B.C. They link the first harvests of the deliberately tamed and trained crop with the Mexican regions of:

• Oaxaca;
• Puebla;
• Veracruz.

In one of the Rio Grande’s Pueblo villages, Young Eagle’s family gets together with Sage’s. Sage’s father has ongoing complaints about tasteless corns and meats. He is convinced that chile fruits will improve flavor. He judges that meal-time enjoyment is so important as to warrant marrying his daughter to whomsoever brings chile seeds from the south-dwelling Aztec peoples. Sage knows that Young Eagle will try his best to meet the challenge. She lets him go after giving as talisman a turquoise necklace. The good-luck charm and an Aztec-linked giant eagle make Young Eagle invulnerable to:

• Boulders;
• Rivers;
• Vultures.

Young Eagle obtains a sack full of chile seeds from one of the Valley of the Aztec’s clan chiefs.

Appreciation and respect for the multi-cultural, multi-lingual landscapes which define distinct regions within the southwestern United States of America inspire LDP Press to:

• Publish since 1984;
• Structure the Rio Grande Books imprint into recent releases since 2006.

The list of publications for 2014 mentions How Chile Came to New Mexico as one of the issues from the winter months. The tale offers imaginative explanations for the spread of chile peppers from suspected origins in central Mexico to xeriscaped fields surrounding the Southwest’s Pueblo villages. It thereby provides cultural enrichment and educational entertainment to all ages through the expertise of:

• Rudolfo Anaya, as author;
• Nasario García, as interpreter into Spanish;
• Nicolás Otero, as painter in the santero tradition.  

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Anaya, Rudolfo. 2014. How Chile Came to New Mexico. Illustrated by Nicolás Otero. Translated into Spanish by Nasario García. Los Ranchos de ABQ, NM: Rio Grande Books.