The town of Española, New Mexico, is nestled between Santa Fe and Taos, only 30 minutes from Los Alamos.
Riding on its rich cultural and historical past, Española weaves the old and new of Hispanic and Native American cultures into one.
“You can't turn a corner here without recognizing the loyalty and passion of the people in this community,” said Mayor Javier Sanchez. “By far, that's what drives us. Your fellow community member here is going to have your back, and that extreme loyalty is what defines this town.”
Another perk is Española’s proximity to Los Alamos National Laboratory as well as Santa Fe’s growing medical community and thriving school system.
“Many of the folks that are being introduced to Los Alamos would rather live in Santa Fe or Rio Rancho,” Sanchez told the New Mexico Sun. “We need to change our image and work on the things that will keep people working and playing in this area. We have to work with the lab in order to make that happen.”
Supporters say Española is a desirable place to live despite having a population of only 10,000, according to City Data, with pride as a defining characteristic. Sanchez has been motivating residents to put all of the positives possible into that pride.
“It doesn't cost money to do some of those things,” he said. “What I am trying to do is get folks to recognize that we can pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. We can still keep our front yards clean or keep our streets without trash. It’s about the simple building blocks.”
Sanchez, who graduated from Yale University, has lived in Española for 20 years and became mayor three years ago.
“I realized it was time to give back to my community,” he said. “I knew that I could make some pretty weighty decisions and use that education that I have to make a difference outside the realm of the wider political world.”
His vision for the town is to take advantage of its location by making it a place where tourists feel welcome, whether by RV or car.
“We get people from Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Texas driving through Espanola because they already know where the good hunting is and that's a huge plus,” he said. “We’d love to capture that and see if they could stay an extra couple of days and visit a little bit more often. It’s on that tourism front that we need to expand on and we need a little bit of infrastructure to make that happen.”
While the state of New Mexico is charming overall with its scenery, hiking, and camping opportunities, Sanchez is apprehensive about not attracting enough investment capital.
“I would really like to see a greater commitment to education and infrastructure so that we can become more attractive to outside folks coming in,” he said. “It's great that Amazon is coming or Netflix but we need to also spur ingenuity and innovation from within. Otherwise, we wind up being used and overrun by a lot of franchises. At the end of the day, all of the money that is spent on those franchises gets swept into banks in Chicago, New York, Atlanta and California, which is outside of where we need it, and that's here.”