This multidisciplinary anthology captures the dynamics of Nuevomexicano cultural expression through a series of wide-ranging essays by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, cultural historians, and scholars of literature and the visual and performing arts. The anthology takes a long-range view of New Mexico's Spanish-speaking people's cultural expression, embracing art, film, music, dance, and theatre, as well as oral traditions, folklore, religion, and public commemoration. Moving from the Spanish colonial era to the present, the authors engage debates about regional “distinctiveness,” and the relationship between the reconstructed past and contemporary cultural politics.

The most incisive essays unravel the often-controversial nature of exhibiting and memorializing Nuevomexicano cultural identity. For example, the recent public debate over Chicana artists' “non-traditional” representations of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, and the controversial decision to commemorate the Spanish colonists' “discovery” of New Mexico with a sculpture of Juan de Oñate, demonstrate power struggles within and beyond the Nuevomexicano community. The multiplicity of terms used throughout the anthology – Nuevomexicano/a; Hispano/a; Indo-Hispano; Spanish; Mexican American; Chicano/a; Latino/a, and Hispanic – signals these divides. Meanwhile, the conflict between Nuevomexicanos and Native Americans over land and historical memory adds another critical dimension to the struggle for identity.

However, the anthology asserts some points of solidarity, emphasizing in particular the centrality of place in shaping Nuevomexicano identity, and the rural, village, and regional practices that, over time, fostered New Mexico's “own sense of cultural ‘nation’” (7). This sense of place is not only evident in Sylvia Rodríguez's study of the relationship between local irrigation practices, religious ritual, community-building and the moral economy. It also underpins Sarah Horton's portrait of “diasporic Hispanos” who, by returning for the annual Santa Fe Fiesta, participate in an alternative form of “pilgrimage” (199) and the ongoing construction of a regional homeland. The authors refrain from collapsing place into any kind of “essence,” unravelling instead the “variegated sense of place” (5) at work in shaping cultural identity. The impact of indigenous Pueblo and Central Mexican cultures on Nuevomexicano religious beliefs, dance and musical formations, and the connection of Nuevomexicano culture to a wider Mexican, Chicano, and Latino culture through art, theatre, folklore, migration, and shared experiences of work and gender, all complicate the geographic and ethnic boundaries of Nuevomexicano identity. The fusion of modernity and tradition in Nuevomexicano cultural formations magnifies this hybridity. Enrique Lamadrid examines the adaptation of “foundational” saints' and miracle narratives to contemporary urban problems such as gentrification, HIV/AIDS, and drugs, whilst Tey Marianna Nunn's exploration of Chicana artists' digital representations of the Virgin Mary similarly complicates representations of Hispanos/as as tradition-bound.

Expressing New Mexico deploys various approaches – personal testimony, detailed fieldwork, archival research, and theoretical models. However, where these are less well integrated, the anthology evolves a rather patchy, uneven quality. Alvin Korte's chapter on “disorder” in Nuevomexicano culture is somewhat misplaced as a final, stand-alone section, and, given its range, the anthology begs some form of concluding discussion. Although the sheer variety of pieces in Expressing New Mexico renders the anthology less suitable for the non-specialist, it does suggest a healthy debate about Nuevomexicano culture. If the anthology often serves to problematize rather than displace the idea of Nuevomexicanos as a “folk” with a regional homeland, in challenging the long-held tradition of romanticizing Spanish-speaking culture the authors generate a complex, multifaceted, and revealing portrait of Nuevomexicanos. Significantly, this portrait often lays bare the agendas, dilemmas, and power struggles embedded in cultural representation.