A dialect spoken in New Mexico and Colorado is likely to die in the next 50 years

Turkey is guajolote.

Dress is túnico.

These are some of the words used in New Mexican Spanish, a dialect that has been used in parts of New Mexico and Colorado for over 400 years.

But the language is fading away fast, with scholars estimating the language will be all-but-gone within the next 50 years.

Lauren Lifke is an incoming senior double-majoring in journalism and statistics at the University of New Mexico. She is the news editor for its student newspaper The New Mexico Daily Lobo and an intern for the Santa Fe Reporter. She aspires to work with data and investigative journalism. She can be reached at lifke.laur [at] gmail [dot] com or on X at @Lauren_Lifke.

Lauren Lifke

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