Please stop saying New Mexicans speak an “ancient” form of Spanish.

It is often said that the Spanish spoken in Northern New Mexico is actually an “ancient” and “archaic” form of Spanish no longer spoken in Spain. But is this really true?

No.

Of course not.

Don’t be ridiculous.

As usual, the truth is far more fascinating!

Perhaps the most pervasive myth among New Mexican Spanish speakers is the notion that New Mexican Spanish is an “archaic” and “pure” form of Spanish. This idea comes from the misconception that New Mexico existed in a continuous state of isolation, separated from the rest of New Spain and the later Mexican Republic by hundreds of miles and for hundreds of years, causing its colonial inhabitants to retain the language of sixteenth-century Spain. This idealized vision of Spanish “purity” has been repeated so often, and with such near-religious zeal, that is has come to be accepted as fact in many circles.

However, this romanticized version of New Mexican Spanish simply doesn’t exist.

To cling to this myth is to ignore the complexity of New Mexico’s colonial-era history, which in reality is quite different, and far more fascinating than any notion of Spanish “purity” can offer. The Indios Mexicanos that made up the bulk of New…