Sandwiched between the artist colonies and tourist centers of Santa Fe and Taos,
northern New Mexico's greater EspaÒola Valley is a New Mexican
Hispanic or Nuevomexicano enclave and often considered a bastion of traditional
Nuevomexicano culture. Despite the valley's location, this area remains off
the artist and tourist track. Moreover, regional and national media sources report
that the valley is a site of widespread heroin use. This article focuses on the act
of using drugs in a place elaborately scripted by discourses that idealize
Nuevomexicano traditional culture. In particular, this article (1) unpacks the
conceptualization of culture as a cure for the problems that affect the community,
(2) situates the study of drug use in EspaÒola in a wider ethnographic
context of drug use, and (3) suggests that drug use provides a momentary
‘fix’ that both reconciles and manifests the contradictions of
many Nuevomexicanos’ lived experiences.
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