5/17/25: Las Cruces' Market, Murals & Bataan Death March!

We had been advised to 'Cruce' along Las Cruces' Main Street on Saturday morning to see the sleepy city come to life, and what a great decision that turned out to be. New Mexico's second-largest city's Farmers & Crafts Market was the place to be, where local farmers showcased their pecans and Hatch chilies, food trucks offered tacos and churros to hungry patrons, and local artisans displayed their pottery, jewelry, and other works of art.

As Steven and I are big fans of murals and other forms of public art, we were thrilled to discover that they were prominent and plentiful throughout the city's downtown core. Con Amor, located on one wall of the Visit Las Cruces center, looked like a mammoth postcard that featured some of Las Cruces’ most recognizable landmarks. Local professional face and body painter, tattoo artist, and multimedia freelance artist Anahy Nuñez was selected from among 65 artists nationwide to create this large-scale work.

Our son, Zachary, was enthralled with all the roadrunner motifs throughout Las Cruces as he works for MSU Denver, whose mascot is also the roadrunner.

In Las Cruces, people are passionate about their green chile, as the hot peppers are a staple in much of the regional cuisine. Just up the road a few miles was the town of Hatch, the green chile capital of the world! Las Cruces was also home to the Chile Pepper Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching the fiery peppers that has also helped develop almost a dozen new chile varieties. Did you know that the heat levels of chiles are measured in Scoville Heat Units or SHUs? The Rio Grande measured a paltry 21 SHU, compared to the Lumbre, which had over 9,000 SHUs.

We'd only planned to spend time at the market and later view the vast number of murals that Las Cruces is well known for. However, we were able to kill two birds with one stone, as many murals were located along or just off Main Street. Some were created by professional artists, while others were produced by budding artists, schoolchildren, or community groups that were part of the city's Public Art Master Plan.

One of the largest public art pieces was Earth and Cosmos, a tiled mosaic walkway that represented an interplanetary scenario featuring abstract representations of the sun, night sky, galaxies, and Earth elements. On both sides of the walkway were more vibrant murals!

I could almost be mistaken for thinking that he farmers' market was more like a dog walkers' gathering, as I had never seen so many dogs and vendors selling dog-related items in one place before!

Gratitude featured quotes submitted by community members.

Color Me Cruces was a postcard mural with each letter of “Las Cruces” featuring iconic Las Cruces visuals by artists, including  Anahy Nuñez.

On the other side of the building was this equally colorful mural!

Just off the main drag was the Branigan Cultural Center, which highlighted New Mexico's culture.

In the courtyard between the Cultural Center and the Museum of Art was Eagle Man, a bronze statue by Michael Naranjo, a blind veteran from the Santa Clara Pueblo near Espanola, where we'd started our road trip in northern New Mexico.

Who couldn't help but smile when coming across such colorful buildings like this one in Las Cruces?!

The Las Cruces Community Theater:

A few minutes' drive from downtown was the historic Mesquite neighborhood, which featured some of the oldest housing in the city as it was the original town site for Las Cruces, dating to 1849. The lively community, known for its adobe homes, reflected the area's diverse architectural styles, including traditional adobe, Mission, Spanish Revival, and Territorial styles. 

The adobe-like walls of the Jardin de Mesquite, located at the gateway to the neighborhood, enclosed a pocket garden that featured vibrant, tiled murals that showcased the neighborhood's history. 

As Zachary and Noora are also big fans of hiking and exploring new places, we drove to the city's Veterans' Memorial Park, which honored Americans who have served in conflict areas throughout the world.

The Korean War section honored those who "repelled Communist aggression on the Northeast Asian Korean Peninsula and stopped the enslavement of South Korea" between June 1950 and July 1953, adding "Freedom is not free".

The Heroes of Bataan Memorial was dedicated to those who died and those who survived the terror of the Bataan Death March in 1942. The sculpture portrayed American and Filipino prisoners of war trying to survive the march. A plaque movingly described their looking back to "what had passed, down to what is present, and ahead to what might be." The footprints were symbolic of the many soldiers who began the march and the few who finished. The impressions were made from the feet that survived.

More than 1,400 New Mexicans fought with the state's 200th Coast Artillery Regiment to defend the Philippines and the Bataan Peninsula. After they were ordered to surrender on April 9th, 1942, the Japanese quickly assembled all POWs and started them on the infamous seven-day, 65-mile Bataan Death March. Approximately 70,000 men began the march, but disease, hunger, thirst, and abuse by Japanese soldiers made each mile deadlier. More than 1,000 Americans, including a staggering 900 from New Mexico, and possibly 15,000 Filipinos, died before reaching Camp O'Donnell. 

I was impressed by the park's size and the moving memorials, given the relatively small size of Las Cruces.

The Sagecrest Park Trail took us from the veterans' park, a long way down a busy street, before cutting into another park. At least, our view of the Organ Mountains was spectacular! They got their name from Spanish colonists in the late 16th century who thought their steep, needle-like spires resembled the pipes of a pipe organ. 

I wish we could have asked someone why there were so many signs with bats on them on the trail. We'd never seen them before or since. 

I read that the urban park and its desert vegetation are familiar to birders near the Las Cruces Dam. The sprawling green space was a welcome retreat from the city's hustle and bustle, and seemed to invite people to unwind amidst the beauty of nature.

That night, Zachary, Noora, and I walked around the neighborhood where our condo was located to admire the flowers.

Next post: Exploring sleepy Mesilla, Las Cruces' most historic neighborhood, and thrilling news after hiking in the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument!

Posted on June 12th, 2025, from our home in the Foothills west of Denver. I hope you're enjoying warm summertime weather and fun activities wherever you are in the world. Don't forget to take care of yourself first and then your loved ones.