tourism, identity, landscape, ethnicity, New Mexico, resistance

New Mexico?s history is one marked by heavy struggles over material and symbolic resources, namely water, land, and sacred sites. This history and cultural diversity pose a great challenge for attempts to build a state identity that would ease ethnic tensions and conflicts. One forum in which attempts at forging a state identity are being made is tourism marketing. For its dry and warm climate, natural beauty, unique historic monuments, and vibrant indigenous and Hispanic cultures, New Mexico has been a major tourist destination for over a century. However, while tourism represents a significant source of income for the local population, the influx of tourists is often seen as a threat by individual communities resisting their inclusion into the official state identity. Communal reactions to tourism are diverse and they exemplify the complex relationships not only between tourists and locals but also between different groups of locals and between locals and their government.