Editing New Mexico (section)

==Etymology==

New Mexico received its name long before the present-day country of Mexico won independence from Spain and adopted that name in 1821. The name "Mexico" derives from [[Nahuatl]] and originally referred to the heartland of the [[Mexica]], the rulers of the [[Aztec Empire]], in the [[Valley of Mexico]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin |first1=Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón |editor1-last=Namala |editor1-first=Doris |editor2-last=Lockhart |editor2-first=James |editor3-last=Schroeder |editor3-first=Susan |title=Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin |date=2006 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804754545 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GRFcH0HWrJ4C&dq=yancuic%20mexico&pg=PA144 |quote=inchan yn ompa huehue mexico aztlan quinehuayan chicomoztoc yn axcan quitocayotia yancuic mexico |access-date=June 3, 2023 |archive-date=June 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612153725/https://books.google.com/books?id=GRFcH0HWrJ4C&dq=yancuic%20mexico&pg=PA144 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Yancuic Mexico |url=https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yancuic-mexico |website=Online Nahuatl Dictionary |publisher=Wired Humanities Projects, University of Oregon |access-date=May 14, 2023 |archive-date=May 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514224110/https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yancuic-mexico |url-status=live }}</ref> Following their [[Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire|conquest of the Aztecs]] in the early 16th century, the Spanish began exploring what is now the Southwestern United States calling it ''Nuevo México''. In 1581, the [[Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition]] named the region north of the Rio Grande ''San Felipe del Nuevo México''.<ref>{{cite book |first=David J. |last=Weber |title=The Spanish Frontier in North America |publisher=Yale University Press |location=[[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]] and London |year=1992 |page=79 }}</ref> The Spaniards had hoped to find wealthy indigenous cultures similar to the Mexica. The indigenous cultures of New Mexico, however, proved to be unrelated to the Mexica and lacking in riches, but the name persisted.<ref>{{cite book |title=Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States |last=Stewart |first=George |author-link=George R. Stewart |orig-date=1945 |year=2008 |publisher=NYRB Classics |location=New York |pages= 23–24 |isbn=978-1590172735 |quote=There was Francisco de Ibarra, a great seeker after gold mines. In 1563, he went far to the north{{spaces}}... when he returned south, Ibarra boasted that he had discovered a New Mexico. Doubtless, like others, he stretched the tale, and certainly, the land of which he told was well south of the one now so-called. Yet, men remembered the name ''Nuevo México'', though not at first, as that of the region which Coronado had once conquered. }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Joseph P. |last=Sanchez |title=The Rio Abajo Frontier, 1540–1692: A History of Early Colonial New Mexico |location=Albuquerque |publisher=Museum of Albuquerque History Monograph Series |year=1987 |page=51 }}</ref>

Before statehood in 1912, the name "New Mexico" loosely applied to various configurations of territories in the same general area, which [[Territorial evolution of New Mexico|evolved throughout the Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. periods]], but typically encompassed most of present-day New Mexico along with sections of neighboring states.<ref>Rivera, José A., ''Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest'', University of New Mexico Press, 1998.</ref>