The line at the Aqua Frescas stand at the festival in Las Cruces is long, and the vendors must be making a killing. The thermometer registers only in the high 70s, but the New Mexico sun is intense, and the humidity is in the single digits.
My husband and I are inhaling a quart-size agua fresca – my personal concoction of heavily-iced pineapple, coconut, mango, orange and papaya juices. Not sure one will be enough, but in the meantime, there’s plenty else to hold our attention.
Several thousand people have turned out for the ¡mira! Las Cruces festival, a celebration that features mariachis and Folklorico dancers in the Plaza de Las Cruces bandshell, which sports a giant chile [cq] backdrop; vendors with artwork and area products (think tons of flavored pistachios and chile-infused everything); food trucks and wine and beer gardens; and chalk drawings on the sidewalks.
“I grew up here and these (photos on the posterboard) are all the things that represent my life in Las Cruces,” explains one teen artist, “That’s what I’m trying to show in my chalk drawing.”
![A young artist vies for the prize for her chalk art created during the first ¡mira! [cq] Las Cruces festival. The city of 112,000 in southern New Mexico has an active arts community – the Doña Ana Arts Council – which sponsors many programs for budding artists. Photo by E’Louise Ondash](https://thecoastnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/webChalk-art.jpg)
“We’re embracing our city and region’s strengths by creating a brand with the surrounding southern New Mexico communities in mind,” says Visit Las Cruces Marketing Director Lorena Lozano. “It opens itself up to future collaborations in a region that often feels overlooked.”
Located between the Rio Grande River and Organ Mountains in what locals like to call “the real New Mexico,” Las Cruces “is the redheaded sister in New Mexico,” says Barbara Reasoner, a resident here since 2014. A yoga teacher and artist, she is working today at the booth for the Doña Ana Arts Council, for which she is the past president. “It’s the second-largest city in the state, but it’s so far south that when people think of going to New Mexico, they think of Albuquerque and Santa Fe and Taos. Las Cruces is really the gem of the south.”
Reasoner also appreciates the city’s history and the expanding artist community.
“We’re right on the El Camino Trail, but what attracted me ultimately to Las Cruces is the quality of the artists in the area (who) are largely overlooked. One of the things we put in our business model is to make the city a destination for history and art.”
Las Cruces offers plenty to inspire artists and nature lovers.
“It’s a different kind of gorgeous,” Reasoner says. “The beauty is hard to describe. The mountains change colors as the sun goes down and I watch the clouds cast different shadows on the mountains. It’s one of the most breathtaking times of day. It stops me dead in my tracks.”
Other attractions in and around Las Cruces:
- Las Cruces Museum of Art — Changing contemporary art exhibits and offering programs for visitors of all ages. Free.
- New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum — Teaches the fascinating 4,000-year history of agriculture in the southern New Mexico region through interactive exhibits, oral histories, demonstrations and artifacts.
- Spaceport America — Tour the world’s first commercial spaceport and site of future commercial space travel and learn about New Mexico’s influence on the space industry.
- Historic Mesilla — Picturesque square, French basilica, farmers’ market, historic adobes and home-grown cuisine.
- Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park — Wildlife viewing, bird watching, hiking and self-guided or ranger-led nature trails. Accessible trails. One-and-a-half miles from Mesilla.
- White Sands National Park — A wonder of nature with mystical, shifting landscapes and unique ecosystem.
For more: https://www.visitlascruces.com/things-to-do/day-trips/ and https://www.visitlascruces.com/.
