Roasting green chile the official New Mexico state aroma

LAS CRUCES – Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 188 Tuesday, March 28, making the smell of roasting green chile the official New Mexico state aroma.

Lujan Grisham traveled to southern New Mexico Tuesday to attend several events and sign the latest bill. She met with Sen. William Soules (D-Las Cruces), the sponsor of the bill, at Monte Vista Elementary School. She entered the building to find students waiting for her in the library and lining the halls.

The school’s fifth grade class was instrumental in getting the bill passed during the recent legislative session.

Soules explained that he was invited to an enrichment day for the students last year to talk about government. He started by asking the kids about other state symbols such as the state bird, the state flower and the state question. Soules is a retired teacher.

The idea behind roasting green chile as the aroma came directly from the students. Three students in particular, Jase Snoddy, Brinley Atkinson and Samuel Williams from Kristina Campbell’s class acted as the senator’s expert witnesses during committee meetings and on the senate floor. Students from the entire class took part in reaching out to lawmakers and advocating for the bill.

“We talked some more about what is this going to take. So we talked about how to lobby, how bills get passed, what the process is,” Soules said.

Lujan Grisham called the state aroma bill “the highlight of any bill signing” in her career. She commended the students for identifying agriculture, tourism and state pride by standing behind this bill.

“All of us love the smell of roasting green chile. We know what season it is, we know where it’s happening. We can smell it at the grocery store, in our neighborhood. It’s in the air everywhere,” Lujan Grisham said. “It’s really important for us to care about our state, be proud of the things that we do better than anybody else, and uniquely different than anybody else. So what you accomplished was something that makes a difference in all of the areas that we work in all day, every day to build a better state for our families.”

The signing of Bill 188 is also historic because it establishes New Mexico as the first state in the country to have an official aroma.

“The bill was important to me because every single thing about New Mexico is green chile,” Snoddy said.

Atkinson said she was fortunate to be part of creating the law because it is an experience some people may never take part in.

“I think that this is a great opportunity and green chile honestly means a lot to me because whenever you smell green chile you think about having fun during the fall in the cool weather,” Williams said. “It’s really great for the state and it’s just really good for everyone, I think.”

The three students sat next to Lujan Grisham and Soules as the governor signed the bill into law.

Deanna Balderrama, principal at Monte Vista, said there are about 100 students in the fifth grade at the school and about 23 in Campbell’s class. She explained that the school holds different enrichment classes for students each month. Soules was invited for the civic engagement day in the fall.

Campbell said she enjoyed taking on this project with her students this semester. She said her biggest takeaway was seeing her students expand their knowledge even beyond the state aroma bill to think about how they might further help New Mexicans.

Creative Media Technology groundbreaking at Doña Ana Community College

Following her time at Monte Vista Elementary, Lujan Grisham traveled to Arrowhead Park near New Mexico State University for the groundbreaking of Doña Ana Community College’s Creative Media Technology building. The building will be located along Triviz Drive, south of Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Multiple legislators, cabinet representatives, congressional representatives, members of local chambers of commerce and local leaders were in attendance for the event.

The CMT building is the first step toward the community college’s Creative Campus which will also be home to the New Mexico Media Academy’s satellite location.

According to a news release, the CMT building will be a 14,000 square foot facility which will include classrooms, common areas and a 4,000 square foot soundstage. The building is projected to cost $11.2 million and to be completed in May 2024.

“The Las Cruces satellite campus of the New Mexico Media Academy exemplifies the collaboration that continues to grow the film and television industry in communities all across the state,” Lujan Grisham said. “The partnership between the booming industry and New Mexico’s tuition-free higher education will foster that growth and support the impressive field of top-notch production companies and media programs right here in Las Cruces.”

The goal is to establish a population of trained local talent to support the work of film and other media productions as they come to the southern New Mexico.

“Las Cruces has already proven itself as a film production hotspot, and with today’s groundbreaking, this very special southern city will also become a hotspot for forward-thinking film workforce training,” said Amber Dodson, director of the New Mexico Film Office.

According to the news release, direct spending from film and TV productions reached $855 million in the previous fiscal year – a record high and a 36% increase from fiscal year 2021.

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Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.