Glossary

The words you’ll hear around Las Cruces — places, history, weather and local ways, explained

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Events

Chile Drop: The New Year’s Eve tradition: a 19-foot lit chile lowered from a crane in downtown Las Cruces.

Red or green?: New Mexico’s official state question; the official answer is “Christmas”.

El Brazito: The Christmas Day 1846 battle of the Mexican-American War, fought south of today’s Las Cruces.
El Camino Real: The Royal Road of the Interior Land, the Spanish road from Mexico City to northern New Mexico that ran through the valley.
Gadsden Purchase: The 1853 treaty (also the Treaty of Mesilla) that bought the land around Las Cruces from Mexico.
Jornada del Muerto: The waterless desert crossing north of Las Cruces that travelers called the Journey of Death.

Acequia: An irrigation ditch that carries river water to the fields.
Arroyo: A dry streambed that runs with water after heavy desert thunderstorms.
Bosque: The riverside woodland of cottonwoods along the Rio Grande.
Mesilla Valley: The Rio Grande floodplain from Radium Springs to El Paso, where Las Cruces’ farms grow chile, pecans, cotton and onions.
Organ Mountains: The jagged range ten miles east of Las Cruces, named for granite needles that look like organ pipes.
Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument: The 496,330-acre national monument around Las Cruces, designated May 21, 2014.
Rio Grande: The river that runs west of Las Cruces and waters the valley; in old accounts, the Del Norte.

Descanso: A roadside memorial; the kind of marker the town’s three crosses may have been.
Doña Ana: The county of which Las Cruces is the seat; the name means “Lady Ana”.
Las Cruces: Spanish for “the crosses”: the city, county seat of Doña Ana County, named for three crosses early settlers reported north of town.

Aggies: New Mexico State University’s teams, from the school’s agricultural-college roots.