SENATE MEMORIAL 31

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald Ortiz y Pino

A MEMORIAL

ENCOURAGING STATE, LOCAL AND TRIBAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO PARTICIPATE IN NEW MEXICO'S 2012 STATEHOOD CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION BY CREATING AND PROMOTING PROJECTS DESIGNED TO HONOR, COMMEMORATE AND CELEBRATE THE HISTORY, TRADITIONS AND FUTURE OF THE STATE WHILE FACILITATING EDUCATION, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM AND CIVIC PRIDE.

     WHEREAS, after being inhabited for nearly three hundred years, New Mexico joined the United States as a territory in 1850; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico strived for the next sixty years to become a state; and

     WHEREAS, on January 6, 1912, New Mexico joined the United States as the forty-seventh state in the union; and

     WHEREAS, the cultural affairs department, in collaboration with both public and private entities, has led coordination of commemoration activities since 2009; and

     WHEREAS, all New Mexico communities are invited to participate in this unique opportunity, with commemorative activities beginning August 28, 2011 and continuing through December 2012; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has many diverse and rich cultural traditions that go back more than a thousand years for Native Americans, more than four hundred years for European Americans, more than one hundred fifty years for African Americans and more than one hundred years for Asian Americans; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has an historical heritage unmatched by any other state in the union; and

     WHEREAS, trails and roads of national and international importance have crossed through or ended in New Mexico, such as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Santa Fe trail, the Butterfield overland stage trail, the Goodnight Loving trail, the second transcontinental railroad in the 1880s and route 66, linking cultures and communities from east to west and north to south for several hundred years; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has a long and distinctive history of sending its residents to fight in the nation's conflicts, including the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico is a leader in the nation's scientific endeavors, beginning with Robert Goddard's rocket experiments in the 1930s and the world's first atomic explosion in 1945 and continuing with the achievements of the Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has been a national pacesetter in artistic expression since the late nineteenth century;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that all state, tribal and local government agencies be encouraged to participate in New Mexico's 2012 statehood centennial commemoration by creating and promoting projects designed to honor, commemorate and celebrate the history, traditions and future of the state while facilitating education, economic development, tourism and civic pride; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the office of the governor, the administrative office of the courts, the New Mexico legislative council, the New Mexico association of counties, the New Mexico municipal league and the governors and tribal councils of New Mexico's Indian nations, tribes and pueblos.

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