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New Mexico and Old Mexico

CHIHUAHUA CITY, MEXICO - May 13, 2004 marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

That day, the State of New Mexico and the State of Chihuahua tied the knot with the first-ever representation by the Land of Enchantment at state-sponsored Feria Santa Rita in Chihuahua, Mexico. Chihuahuan representatives will return the favor when they set up shop at the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque in September.

Officials from Expo New Mexico and the New Mexico Tourism Department joined their counterparts in Chihuahua Monday (May 24) for a press conference and ribbon cutting that put a public face on this new spirit of cooperation. The press conference at the Government Palace in Chihuahua unveiled the Two-Nation Vacation

Like New Mexico, Chihuahua is a land of mountains, canyons, deserts and clean air. Chihuahua covers a surface area of 244,938 square kilometers, making it the largest state in Mexico. Ciudad Juarez leads in population, followed by the municipality of Chihuahua with roughly a half-million inhabitants.

The state capital, Chihuahua was an important setting for the hazardous years of the Independence movement; the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the “Founding Father of Mexico,” remained a prisoner in what is now the Federal Palace. He was executed June 11, 1811, in the central patio of the Government Palace.

As well as a history forged by great men, Chihuahua has the most scenic engineering work of Mexico. The railroad line from Chihuahua to the Pacific twists past the craggy cliffs of the Sierra Madre and hugs the rim of the Cañon del Cobre (Copper Canyon), which is twice the size of the Grand Canyon.