# New Mexico in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835 "2010-01-29T01:39:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/1 "2010-01-29T01:39:44Z")
My wife got to wondering if it was an urban myth or it really happened that a ticket agent for the Atlanta Olympics refused to sell a ticket to a resident of New Mexico because the agent refused to believe that NM was in the US. Anybody know if it really happened? ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/2 "2010-01-29T01:48:54Z")
all I can say about this is that New Mexicans are very good at ensuring you realize that they are from America, and not Mejico. Whether this comes as a result of misunderstandings such as your OP, or it’s just state folklore that they like to run with in order to give tourists a few take-aways about New Mexico, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/3 "2010-01-29T01:50:25Z")
The license plates used to say New Mexico USA - maybe they still do. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/4 "2010-01-29T01:51:54Z")
I’m from New Mexico and even when I was a kid in the 80s or early 90s there was still some misconceptions about New Mexico, but generally it doesn’t happen as much anymore. The most common thing is for someone to ask you about growing up in Arizona these days. About the apocryphal story, one has to wonder why they weren’t just using a travel agent IN New Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/5 "2010-01-29T01:55:13Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > About the apocryphal story, one has to wonder why they weren’t just using a travel agent IN New Mexico. no not a travel agent - an olympic ticket agent. each national olympic committee gets a certain number of tickets to sell in that country (or something like that which effectively implements residency requirements to buy tickets to the olympics). if the ticket agent thought a New Mexican was from Mexico, they wouldn’t have sold them the tickets, much like an actual Mexican trying to get some tickets to the Atlanta games. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/6 "2010-01-29T02:04:58Z")
I come from a poor area with a rather large uneducated population. I never heard anyone say that New Mexico is not part of the United States and not Alaska or Hawaii either. People swear that it happens and I have no doubt it does. Never underestimate the stupidity of the common man especially when you have millions of them around. I did encounter a similar problem very recently. The person that is training me at my new IT job is very knowledgeable about systems but he is convinced he knows how to extract energy from perpetual motion generators as well and wants to save up enough money to start his own business to make it work and change the world. It is all extremely simple if you ask him about it and he can do it in his attic. In my house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics though. He is also convinced that Puerto Rico is a terrible ‘country’ on par with Haiti because they shoot children getting on a school bus for some reason known only to him. I mentioned briefly that Puerto Rico was part of the U.S. as well and that caused his brain to short out and then cause amnesia and we were back to the same conversation about Puerto Rico being one of the worst countries on earth. He is quite proud of the fact that he has never traveled more than 100 miles from home in his 37 years and rarely more that 30 miles to get to work. I have no idea if that specific incident happened but I can make your hair stand on end with some stuff I have heard about basic geography and politics over the years. Ask me about the country of ‘Your-Ope-EE’ sometime. One of my history teachers in junior high (really just the junior high varsity basketball coach) had some interesting views on that mysterious place wherever the hell it is. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/7 "2010-01-29T02:11:38Z")
I note Puerto Rico has an olympic team. They also have a beer. Therefor, they are a country. ---
**Author:** ![Strangelove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/8 "2010-01-29T02:13:59Z")
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to explain to someone that New Mexico is a state in the USA. The last one was at most 6 months ago from someone in Baltimore. So no, it’s not an urban legend, it really happens. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/9 "2010-01-29T02:15:06Z")
Did the US have to allow Puerto Rico to have their own team? Do any other non-countries have teams? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/10 "2010-01-29T02:18:56Z")
> [@Strangelove](#): > > I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to explain to someone that New Mexico is a state in the USA. The last one was at most 6 months ago from someone in Baltimore. So no, it’s not an urban legend, it really happens. Yes, but did the specific incident actually happen? I hope all you New Mexicans didn’t think that I doubted the status of NM. About Alaska, on the other hand… But never mind, this is GQ. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/11 "2010-01-29T02:33:54Z")
I have no idea if the specific anecdote actually happened, and I doubt there’s a conclusive record. That said: it does happen, and since moving here four and a half years ago, I’ve found myself explaining New Mexico the state not Mexico the country at least four times. I think part of the problem is just that people don’t pay attention, or physically don’t hear things. In most parts of the country you probably do here references to Mexico more often than New Mexico, and I think sometimes people’s brains just kind of skim over what’s actually being said. I was once chatting with someone in an airport who seemed to truly not know that NM is a state, though. She did the standard “Oh, you go to school in Mexico, you must speak really good Spanish!” thing, and I gently gave the “New Mexico” correction. Her response was a truly confused, “Where’s that?” This took place in _Texas_. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/12 "2010-01-29T02:37:50Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > The license plates used to say New Mexico USA - maybe they still do. As of 2007, yes. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/13 "2010-01-29T02:42:16Z")
Excerpted from a much longer [piece in the New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/21/us/olympic-diary-added-game-for-atlanta-define-find-a-redneck.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2) (may require registration): > [@](#): > > People who drive through the deep shade of midtown Atlanta may do a double-take when they pass by one house there. A sign out front proclaims it “The Consulate of New Mexico,” prompting some to wonder why New Mexico gets a consulate while Mississippi does not. > > It is just a joke, of course, inspired by one fan’s experience with the Olympic ticket office. In February, Wade Miller, a computer systems analyst from Santa Fe, called the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to order tickets. > > The operator told him that she could not sell tickets to those who live outside the United States. Mr. Miller tried to explain that New Mexico is a part of the United States. It has been for 84 years. > > He was passed on to a supervisor, who informed him that while she understood that New Mexico was a “territory,” she still could not send any tickets outside the United States. Then she offered to give him the phone number for the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee. > > Months later, when Bob Romano, a resident of midtown Atlanta, was visiting New Mexico, the New Mexicans retaliated. “They asked me for my passport,” he said. > > So, as a goof, he opened the New Mexican consulate at his house, complete with brochures. > > “I just think the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games is taking itself a little too seriously,” Mr. Romano said. “Let’s just enjoy this.” Of course, the article is a series of anecdotes with no cited authors and no explicit provenance. It is just as possible for the NYT to get this sort of story wrong as it is for any community weekly around the country. However, this is the story as it appears to have been introduced to the country at large. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/14 "2010-01-29T02:47:16Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > I note Puerto Rico has an olympic team. They also have a beer. Therefor, they are a country. That’s silly. By that reasoning Jamaica would be a country too. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/15 "2010-01-29T03:07:48Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Did the US have to allow Puerto Rico to have their own team? Do any other non-countries have teams? [Hong Kong](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_at_the_Olympics) also has its own Olympic team. Thus far, it has managed to win exactly one gold medal. :o ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/16 "2010-01-29T03:15:15Z")
“Come on, New Mexico. You know, the place with the nukes and the aliens?” ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/17 "2010-01-29T03:15:39Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > That’s silly. By that reasoning Jamaica would be a country too. Jamaica has their [own bobsled team](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_national_bobsled_team). They are planning to be at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, in a couple of weeks. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/18 "2010-01-29T03:22:25Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Did the US have to allow Puerto Rico to have their own team? Do any other non-countries have teams? Puerto Rico is allowed it’s own Olympic team because it’s not fully intergrated with the metropole (ie because it’s not a state). The IOC rules allowing this were originally written so that European colonies could participate in the Games despite not being fully sovereign nations. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/19 "2010-01-29T03:43:47Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Did the US have to allow Puerto Rico to have their own team? Do any other non-countries have teams? From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Olympic_Committee) > [@](#): > > As of 2008, there are 205 NOCs, representing both sovereign nations and other geographical areas. All 192 United Nations member states have National Olympic Committees, as do 13 other territories: > > [ul] > [li]Taiwan designated as Chinese Taipei by the IOC[/li][li]Palestinian territories, designated as Palestine by the IOC[/li][li]Four territories of the United States: American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and United States Virgin Islands (designated just Virgin Islands by the IOC)[/li][li]Three British overseas territories: Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, and Cayman Islands[/li][li]Two constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba and Netherlands Antilles[/li][li]Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China[/li][li]Cook Islands, an associated state of New Zealand[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835/20 "2010-01-29T03:49:21Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Jamaica has their [own bobsled team](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_national_bobsled_team). They are planning to be at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC, in a couple of weeks. They should make a movie about that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mexico-in-the-us/526835.md?page=2)