station slot, see the full spectrum of human folly and commit some follies of your own. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ since i was 14 years old, i always wore cowboy boots. maybe because my little boy role models were always the men in the black hats. richard boone in "have gun will travel," robert vaughn in "the magnificent seven." silent killers. men with pasts. men from somewhere else who found themselves in the great american west. a place where reinvention, a new life was always possible. as long as you were willing to kill for it. ♪ i took a ride through this beautiful world ♪

♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la, la, la, la ♪ sha la, la, la, la, la ♪ sha la, la, la, la ♪ sha la, la, la, la, la the western myth has pretty much captured the american imagination. none of us can escape it. for ages, we identified ourselves with the image of the lone cowboy, the perception of frontier values, self-sufficiency, rugged individualism, the freedom of wide open spaces.

few places in america still manage to embody that mythic landscape of the imagination like the state of new mexico. what does freedom mean? it's different things to everybody, it seems, but something about this place manages to capture the overlap between a whole hell of a lot of very different cultures. old route 66 runs through new mexico like a collapsed vein, right through santa fe and albuquerque. it must have seemed like magic once. families loaded in a massive chrome and steel chariots with powerful v-8 engines and took off down that blacktop highway. they slept in whimsical motor lodges and bungalows, swam in kidney-shaped pools. then it all went redundant. route 66 was decommissioned, chopped up, largely forgotten,

except by desperate and lazy travel show hosts. >> does anyone else at cnn do this, like drive around 10:15 at night looking for tacos? >> yeah, probably. >> i'll say this. the strip takes on a much more interesting look at night. you can imagine dennis hopper huffing nitrous and dismembering somebody over an unrolled tarp in any one of those sinister-looking motel rooms. cool. >> hopefully the tacos first, because after you do the meth you really aren't going to want to eat. in ancient times, drivers would hang the testicles of their enemies on their rear-view mirrors. >> best case scenario around here, in my humble opinion, taco truck, of which there are quite a few. parking lot, the smell of mystery parts on a griddle, yes. >> can i have one asada, one pastor, and one lengua, please? >> knowing what i love of all things mexican, you might expect me to be eating tacos for the next hour.

>> going to adopt the wide stance. damn you, tacos village. come for the vistas, stay for the tacos. ♪ [ gunshot ] [ gunshots ] >> 30 rounds per magazine of steel-jacketed destruction as fast as your finger can pull the trigger.

you might well ask yourself, why the hell would anybody need a weapon like this? the ar-15 is one of the weapons most reviled by gun opponents. it's also america's favorite rifle. >> i never thought i'd say a guy from new york is a natural when it comes to shooting an ar-15 in new mexico, but i'm impressed. >> as a nation, we love them. there are about four million in circulation. those are the facts. >> basically, ar-15 is a semiautomatic civilian version of an m-16. the funny thing is that in relation, this gun is almost identical to this gun, but this is the one that's evil. shoots the same caliber, the same magazine capacity, just looks a little different. >> i'm an east coast guy. i'm a new yorker. but i come from a place where a glimpse of a weapon on somebody at a bar, in the street is reason for panic. here and in much of america in between new york and l.a. you walk into a bar and you see somebody with a weapon, it's like you know, that's my

neighbor, maybe he's going hunting. who knows? most of the people you know own guns? >> everybody i know. >> pretty much everybody. >> i had a rifle before i had a baseball bat. >> meet jesse, bill, bo, and daniel. pretty much who we are talking about when we see the latest stats on gun purchases in america and shake our heads uncomprehendingly. that cultural divide, much more than policy, is what's kept the issue of gun control so polarized and so, frankly, hopeless. >> he had a gun before he had a baseball bat. i'm in the same situation. i was shooting a bb gun when i was 5 years old, and i knew at that time it wasn't a toy, it was a weapon, and i was very well educated by my father on the responsible use of that piece of equipment. and that's what's critical to me.

>> i shoot all the time, and i'm always trying to shoot better than i did last week. >> it's relaxing. you're out with friends. it's fun. >> there's a dark little genie in all of us, i think, that wants to pick up a gun, point it at something, and blast away. >> this is a new springfield arm 9-millimeter with a 19-round clip. ♪ you know the reasons >> i like guns. i don't own a gun, but i like holding them. i like shooting them. >> a glock .22. it's chambered in a .40-caliber. >> there is something compelling, an eerie rush, an unholy sense of empowerment feeling the warm glow of these heavy iconic shapes in your hands. >> get off my lawn, you kids. >> that's a .357 magnum. it's an eight-shot revolver. >> bigger kick on this guy. >> a little bit. >> you just can't help silently mouthing "make my day" or

"feeling lucky, punk." you could do this all day. whatever your opinion on the subject, fact is, gun culture runs deep in this country. >> this is what i grew up with, yeah. i shot my very first turkey with this gun at 12 years old, actually. >> that's a .22 rimfire cartridge. that is probably the type of firearm that most kids start off with. >> these guys, i'm guessing, are not people i should be worried about. they are nice. and exceedingly patient with a city boy who wants to play with their guns. >> that there is a .338 winchester magnum. that's a big cartridge, heavy bullet for very large game like elk. >> there's a target up on that hillside. can you see it? >> now watch mr. new york city

liberal shoot that target out there from 244 wind-swept yards. >> oh, wow. now, am i accounting for windage dropping with distance? what -- >> yeah, you want to aim 13 millimeters to the left, four millimeters high and you'll hit dead-center. [ laughter ] >> left? >> no, hold it right on. i'm just making a joke. >> taking advantage of the city boy. >> that wind's got to be 20 miles an hour. >> holding the rifle in this wind without a brace is tough. >> all eyes are on you, no pressure. >> pretty close, huh? >> may have been a hair left. >> a little high that time, i think. >> a little right.

>> shooting real good, though, tony. >> you're not missing it by much. >> if you were elk hunting, you'd be hitting them. >> exhale. pull and squeeze. >> the biggest thing is just let it surprise you. as you're pulling the trigger, squeeze it slow. every time it goes off, it should surprise you, that way you don't flinch. >> that looked right on. that looked right on to me. >> i've got to tell you. i'm proud of myself. i was somewhere in the neighborhood. >> he's a natural. >> you think people that don't like the idea of guns, if they had a day out here shooting targets, i suspect a fair number of them would at least temper their views somewhat. >> a thousand percent. absolutely. >> you definitely get a respect for the power of it, for sure. >> generally speaking, me and these guys i think should feel free to buy all the guns we want. it's the rest of you i'm not so sure about.

>> i know how to shoot beer cans. when the zombie apocalypse comes, i'll be ready. as long as they're holding beers. ♪ i'd like to put in you're quitting!?. technically retiring, sir. with a little help from my state farm agent, i plan to retire in 15 years. wow. you're totally blindsiding me here. whose going to manage your accounts? this is a devastating blow i was not prepared for. take charge of your retirement. talk to a state farm agent today. ♪ (dorothy) toto, i've a feeling we're not in kansas anymore... (morpheus) after this, there is no turning back. (spock) history is replete with turning points.

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♪ so when i grew up, when i was a kid, i played cowboys and indians. the cowboy myth had such a grip on americans' self-identity. >> i remember. playing cowboys and indians, it was just part of the culture. you looked up to john wayne, steve mcqueen. my kid, 12 years old, wouldn't even think about cowboys.

>> this is david manzanares. his family has lived here for generations, tracing their roots all the way back to the spanish conquistador. >> you know, those cliff walls out there, tony, are 160 million years old. the ones at the bottom, about 220. they're all the way back to the triassic area. >> and this is ghost ranch, next door to david's spread. this is the area where georgia o'keefe spent the last and most productive decades of her life. >> now you've walked into her painting. this is what she called "my country." you know, it wasn't until my early 20s that i even knew who georgia o'keefe was. grew up with her being like a grandmother. it took me going out to l.a. and going into a gallery out there. i saw all these paintings. like an idiot, i said why have you got pictures of my house? she said please, take a step back. that's georgia o'keefe's. it's just going to get prettier. it's just going to get prettier.

>> one of o'keefe's biographers infamously described this landscape which had so captivated the artist as garish, vulgar, and in poor taste, which if you look around is pretty hard to comprehend. this is such the other side of the universe for somebody who lives like i do. people who live in cities, for whom a back yard this big is inconceivable. the idea that there's a certain type of personality who's drawn towards open spaces like this. >> you know, this country, it either embraces you or within a year it spits you out. >> we reach the end of our trail at a place called valley of thieves, once said to be a haven for infamous cattle wrestlers. of course. >> they call it the rabbit.

ladies, you know what i'm talking about. jesus, i'm in my 50s. everything -- still with the jokes. i've got to find a distinguished segue into adulthood one of these days. three generations of manzanares are here with me this evening -- herman, david, and max. we'll do our best to put together a little meal. >> anybody want some coffee? >> i'll take some of that. >> cream, anybody? >> who am i kidding? i'm a city boy. i need some cream. >> you need some cream? >> yeah. trying to get all jack palance here. come on. who am i kidding? >> we're also joined by dan flores, respected authority, professor of history. author of the book "horizontal yellow: nature and history in the southwest." >> how spanish is new mexico still? how powerful are the echoes from spain? >> spain was in control of new

mexico for far longer than mexico was. i think a lot of these new mexican families are 10 generation and 11 generation. when they look back on themselves, they think of themselves as spanish. >> those traditions, they've continued to thrive in these little pockets. we're cut off from spain. so i once worked with people from spain and they kept cutting up and snickering at me. what they told me was okay, you can knock it off with the don quixote phraseology. the equivalent of me today, talking saying "top of the morning to you, sir." >> really? >> and they were like, stop making fun of us. and i said you know what? i'm not making fun of you. that's the way we speak. we go see grandpa, that's all he knows, is 500 year ago spanish. >> maybe if we're lucky enough, we'll have grandpa play his harmonica the way he used to on the cattle drives. ♪ >> but i have a plan here on this meat. >> all right, the meat is yours. >> all right, good.

♪ >> just call me cookie. some local beef, glowing hot coals, cast iron can. >> pureed green chilies here? >> yes. >> beautiful. i'm going to throw those chilies in in a little bit, stew it for a few minutes, and we'll be good. i just need a few splashes of like an open beer. beautiful. check it off the chuck wagon greatest hits, we've got some beans, some potatoes, some corn bread. we do our best. >> this is just about ready. >> let's eat. >> dig in. >> we done good, gentlemen. >> no kidding. >> thank you, tony. this is excellent. >> i'm wondering, you guys have been here for so long, your

family. could you live anywhere else? >> not me. no, not me. >> this is home. i always get called back here. i visited paris and lived in l.a. for a while. you know, paris is pretty great. >> it's pretty great. but it's not here. >> dan, i'm curious to know why you chose here. why you came here initially. >> it's open space. because i had grown up in a circumstance where you couldn't see 50 feet. i mean, the forest was so dense. i used to climb up into the top of a tree on the highest hill just to be able to see over the forest. so there was something about the idea of being able to see the landscape that really compelled me. >> the big empty makes a real deep, deep sense to a certain type of person. ♪

[ singing in spanish ] [ singing in spanish ] ♪ [ singing in spanish ]

[ singing in spanish ] ♪ ♪ ♪

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since before 1598 when santa fe was established as a province of new spain, grizzled frontiersmen and hardy pioneers have come to this unforgiving landscape to eke out a difficult existence. welcome to santa fe today. where we can all live the western dream and even buy a little piece of it to take home. you gotta love it. we pretty much eradicate the native american culture, and now in newer, more politically correct times, we decide we love indians and all things native american. and we're kind of but not really sorry. and how much is that bric-a-brac? but that's not all. the new west is inclusive. >> welcome to santa fe. >> you've got your whole spectrum of new age crystal types seeking spiritual purity and intensity in the harsh, yet beautiful landscape. it's the last place in the u.s.

you can wear buckskin and fringe without irony. while holding a buddhist blanket. there is, very deep inside this ordinary-looking five and dime, something truly authentic. >> hi. frito pie and a soda, please? >> this is the frito pie. as american as apple pie or the manhattan project and nearly as deadly. canned hormel chili and day-glo orange cheese-like substance dropped like a deuce, another roller in the night, right into a bag of fritos. >> it feels like you're holding warm crap in a bag. if you closed your eyes and i put this in your hand, you'd be very worried. colostomy pie.

i'm opposed to everything this stands for. yet, it is also delicious. neither the frito nor the frito pie are indigenous to new mexico. they were actually texan. in new mexico you have many wonderful things. i think let texas have this one. i've managed to reach a depth of self-loathing it usually takes a night of drinking to achieve. a frito pie with a night of binge tequila and a strip club. ♪ >> a warm, spreading glow fills my belly as i set out once more in my mighty ford galaxy. yet i am also depressed. frito pie. i smell metaphor. speaking of explosive diarrhea -- did you know that the first ever atomic bomb was exploded in 1945 in the desert of new mexico?

sushi bars, galleries, massage studios. crystals? we got 'em. >> i think i need to adjust my vent or something. i just see dark portents in all of this. >> well, there are a lot of dark portents. all i've had today is a frito pie. >> this food will lighten you up, i guarantee you. >> horseman's haven cafe sits next to a gas station that is about as far away from the plaza as you can get without leaving the santa fe city limits. >> it has a special feel of chilies grown specifically for this restaurant and nowhere else. >> i meet back up with dan flores for a little historical perspective over some of santa fe's most beloved new mexican fare. >> i know people who have journeyed 300 or 400 miles to come eat at horseman's haven.

>> enchilada with carne entomatada. cubed pork in red new mexico chili sauce with beans and rice. got to have that. some posole, a stew made from soaked hominy and pork. and sopapilla. a fried bread like a spoon bread or a johnny cake. >> did the early spaniards, early cattle, railroad men, the people on the way to making this america, were they romantic about this part of the world? >> they thought of it as a hard place. for one thing, it was exceedingly remote. when you were here, this seemed like one of the farthest reaches of the globe. initially, americans began coming here because they perceived that santa fe was so remote from the rest of the spanish empire that it was possible for the united states to pluck it. i don't think anybody becomes a romantic about it probably until

the taos painters arrive. >> starting a long-running tradition of artistic pilgrimages to catch the spiritual groove, every kind of utopian dreamer, eccentric, new ager, they all came here in search of whatever. mmm, chilies. >> all right. thank you very much. >> that's level three. >> yes, sir. >> all right. we will be careful. indeed. >> new mexican chilies come in two varieties -- red or green. >> that's, by the way, the state question in new mexico. >> red or green. >> red or green. >> ordinarily, i like green. it's like yankees or mets. you've got to pick one. this green, however, is not ordinary green. >> my face is burning off. >> this? this ain't normal. oh, god. this hurts. >> i'm going to join you. >> def-con one, two, three. >> it's a slow roll, too. first you think it's going to be okay. then it's not.

there's nothing to do but wait it out. i believe they use these same peppers in pepper spray. >> or repelling grizzly bears. if that tells you anything. >> yeah. >> a shot glass of that will put you in the hospital. >> no kidding. everybody in the restaurant seems so calm. maybe they're not eating this. >> they're all just trying to muffle their screams. lilly bakeg for college. she'll use that education to get a job. she'll use that job to buy a home. this is lilly baker. her mom just refinanced their home and is putting an extra $312 a month toward lilly's tuition. lilly is about to take over the world. who's with her? buy in. quickenloans/home buy. refi. power.

i'd like to put in my 15-years notice.ration you're quitting!? technically retiring, sir. with a little help from my state farm agent, i plan to retire in 15 years. wow! you're totally blindsiding me here. who's gonna manage your accounts? this is a devastating blow i was not prepared for. well, i'm gonna finish packing my things. 15 years will really sneak up on you. jennifer with do your exit interview and adam made you a cake. red velvet. oh, thank you. i made this. take charge of your retirement. talk to a state farm agent today.

history, they say, belongs to the victors. and here, where the myth of the american west took root, where so much romantic lore began, history was being rewritten almost as soon as it happened. this was never the big empty. as dan flores writes, the idea of a wilderness is itself a cultural construct. as early as 1539 when marcos de niza, a franciscan friar, reported sighting from a distance what he called the seven cities of cibola, these were interpreted as tantalizing outposts of wealth, possible cities of gold. coronado, the famous spanish conquistador, quickly dispatched an expedition, and there were indeed cities.

>> hi. >> this is zia. >> awesome. well, thank you for having us. >> the home of community leader ivan pino in zia pueblo. i'm here to join him and his nephew robert and family in a traditional hunt. >> so we'll be carrying our shotguns. we'll be carrying our rabbit stick. we won't do this anymore. >> it's harder. >> it's always good to get a prayer going so that the animals can be willing to take their life. [ speaking foreign language ] >> the pueblo, who lived here continuously since around 1250 a.d., had long before the spanish or anyone else arrived a highly organized society. they built multi-level adobe

apartment blocks. they farmed the land. irrigated crops using intricate water diversion systems. all this in what sure as hell looked like a harsh and unforgiving land. >> yo, huh, huh, huh, huh. >> this is good weather, though, for hunting because it's a nice breeze, overcast. >> the breeze is beautiful. >> not to hot. >> ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. >> pueblo long ago learned to adapt to hard times, dry seasons, war, incursion. there were years where there was nothing. and they had to deal. >> we found a pack rat. >> our first pack rat. >> in preparation for the summer solstice ceremony, game like rabbits and pack rats are collected for the medicine man as a payment for his services. >> how you notice is there's some droppings, fresh droppings. >> you see the droppings, you know there's one around. this time of the day, they're going to be inside their homes.

there's too many predators around. >> it's not easy. once you find a nest, you got to dig after the little burrowing bastards. you hack, you dig. you dig some more. >> a lot of work for a small rodent. >> i was just thinking that. yeah. >> that's what our ancestors had to do sometimes. you know, when times go hard. right now there's this drought going on. if we didn't have the grocery stores -- >> right. >> then hopefully when you flush one cleanly -- >> oh! >> get it? >> got it right here. >> right. >> and give him a good whack on the head. >> the ratio of work to protein. is not in the hunter's favor. >> it's whiskers. a little bit of his tail. and put it back in here. >> to ensure a generation of this once vital source of food, tradition and ritual requires

returning a part of the animal back to the nest. >> i will never go hungry. >> going for pack rats is really an homage, an acknowledgement of an important earlier time when that was all there was. the 25-year great drought. >> as a city boy, i am greatly relieved these little critters are for the medicine man and we won't actually be eating any of them. instead linda, ivan's wife, is preparing a pretty traditional menu. >> nothing is wasted when our big game is brought home. we dry up and dehydrate the bone. >> deer bone stew, red chili stew cooked with dried elk and potatoes, pinto beans with chicos, that's roasted dried corn, and tortillas. and of course more chilies. >> we call this dish push-around chili. because you push around.

>> you push it around until you see the one you want. >> the chilies in the state are magical. >> the seeds have been passed on from generation to generation and stay within the families. >> what percentage of young people leave and don't come back? >> not too many people will leave. >> really? >> no. >> there are people who leave, but eventually there's this yearning inside you that you want to go home, you want to learn your culture, you want to be a part of everything. >> it would be an understatement to say the first europeans who came into contact with indians the effect was destructive to the culture. and given that history, how american do you feel? >> this village is unique in that we can easily just ignore everything that happens out there and just keep to ourselves here, and we do that sometimes. we close the road and we take care of our own business here. but it really varies by individual. and maybe even by generation. we have a veteran, a veteran, a veteran that all served in our armed forces.

>> a big tradition of serving in the military. >> yes. >> we continue to be outdoorsmen. and we are survivors. i've dealt with the elements of the dust, the rain, the hail. but it made a better person out of me. we are who we are. we're still going to be here. ♪ no matter where he's hosting. ♪ stella artois host beautifully chuck, i know i have a 798 fico score, thanks to experian.com. kaboom... get your credit swagger on. go to experian.com. become a member of experian credit tracker and take charge of your score.

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>> ufo activity is spiking and animals are behaving strangely. >> injuries from the crash. >> taken out into the desert. and they were buried there. >> like some kind of kegs or -- >> forced into my --

>> look up in the dark. the night sky. uncontaminated by the light of any nearby cities, you can see things. and of course, you've got a rich tradition of actual, real-life spooky science fiction stuff. the manhattan project in los alamos, nuclear missile silos hidden deep beneath the desert floor. it's out there. >> so where are we? >> ground zero of where everything seems to have started. >> submitted for your approval. norio and his friend james, two men associated with the new mexico ufo and paranormal forum. >> this is where america's rocketry actually started. >> at the end of world war ii, classified units of the cia and army intelligence were busy sandbagging and sneaking away from probable prosecution, cadres of the world's best rocket scientists. did i mention they were nazis? oh, yeah. many of them were sent around here.

>> other very mysterious things even took place allegedly in 1947. >> 1947, roswell incident. >> that's right. that's still a mystery. >> some say. you notice how they always say that in those dubious cheaply reenacted doc shows. "some say" it was the remains of an alien spacecraft. anyhoo, back then they were working on some pretty cool stuff. for instance, a mylar-like weather balloon designed to carry high-resolution cameras across the soviet union. when they got into the atmosphere they would pancake out like a flying saucer. >> might that explain the excessive zeal and mysterious behaviors? if one of these things crashed in the desert, you can understand a whole bunch of sinister-looking bodies would show up and start telling people never speak of this incident. >> you know, it's hard to say. but any military could create a cover story for anything. >> any possibility of like cyborgs or aliens? >> good question.

i heard that there is and then i've heard there isn't. >> we're taking you to a place, an undisclosed location, what's known as albuquerque's own area 51. >> there will be no probing involved. because every time there's like alien stuff there's probing. always with the probing. i don't understand. if they've been coming here for years, haven't they done enough probing? >> if we were from like "ghost adventures," we'd be really playing this up. some say this area was used for sinister experiments, german-speaking cyborgs. we'd need to find some crackpot scientician. this is even better than area 51. this is likerea 61. >> area 61 turns out to be a fenced-off view of essentially kirkland air force base. >> the leading edge military research development and testing. at night, there's a lot of lights. it's a huge complex.

>> fact is, there was and still is some pretty cool stuff being tested out there in the desert. maybe for darpa or nsa or the air force. who knows? do you think there are other life forms among us who visited this planet? >> yes, i do. >> what do you think? >> well, personally, i have a different opinion. this whole alien concept is a cover story in order to conceal certain kind of projects. but i could be wrong. but i try to be a realist. but i'm open to anything. >> what is for certain and has been authentically documented on film is that somewhere out there, among the silos, underground cities, supposed nuclear waste dumps, and alien burial grounds there is a large animal and a hole in the ground. what strange beast even now is being loaded into a grave-size pit in the desert for me?

♪"once there was a hushpuppy" by dan romis man kind?eitlin ♪ are we good? go see. go look through their windows so you can understand their views. go find out just how kind the hes and shes of this mankind are.

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we're a force of nature, too. ♪

♪ well, since we're getting to civilization, i think one of the first things any society learned to do is dig a hole, throw an animal in it, you know, cook it. >> they call it around here a matanza. >> one, two, three, up, up.

>> it's pretty much an old-school version of a barbecue in the sense that it involves burying a giant pig and the imbibing of much alcohol. about 20 minutes from the nearest paved road is a place called dead horse ranch. people who helped us make the show, no shortage of family, friends, and new mexican character gathered to partake in the festivities. there is beer here. plenty of it. local, delicious, and abundant. did i say that? >> tony, need another drink? >> there are very tasty and lethal as it turns out margaritas and i believe to the best of my recollection anyway that i soon made the classic error of moving from margaritas to actual shots of straight tequila. it does make it easier to meet new people. >> let me ask you, why is it that anytime an alien visits like america there's always anal penetration involved? >> i never heard it before. >> really? >> ever. no. am i new to that?

>> but the pig, the pig. >> what about that body in the desert? some say the tradition of the matanza dates back to moorish times, when the eating of pig had to be clandestine. but a bit of history we can verify, this pig's been cooked slow over hot coals for the last 17 hours. >> i caught a peek of its ass. it looks delicious. >> frank here, he knows. he runs poncho's barbecue in albuquerque. time to get slicing. i step in, help frank break my piggy friend down into his constituent parts. beautiful. >> first off go the legs, what you call your fresh ham. then your forequarter, your shoulders and whatnot. the loin and rib section, your pork belly. nothing goes to waste. >> all right. now mr. head. >> all those pig parts sent down the line to harold, who's been using them for a veritable

rainbow of new mexican specialties. none of our 300-pound friend will go to waste. he's getting shredded for tacos, added to the beans, cooked up with posole. it's going into chili. red or green. >> oh, yeah, that's going to be beautiful. >> the tenderloin i set aside for a little time on the grill. everyone here has put in a lot of work. and they're hungry. time to eat. >> i didn't know the show was about this, but i've been thinking about it a lot. this sort of cowboys, mexicans, indian, romantic ideal. a lot of easterners came out here and fell in love with this romantic notion of the west and wanted to come out here and sort of create their own version of the west. was that a good thing? >> that's what helps us as a people, as a native culture. as a culture that's been here for these years.

we invite you to come and enjoy what we partake in. i mean, the indians had the beans and the chili and the corn. the spanish people brought the pork. i mean, and we put that together, and we have this meal here. >> people love the native culture, they love the hispanic culture here. it wasn't always that way when i was younger. >> you played cowboys and indians as a kid. if there's one american iconic hero, it's the lone cowboy. does that have any resonance at all out here? >> every culture here, mexican, spanish, in pueblo, reservation, white, we all are cowboys here. >> i am a native new mexican. i've gone through strange phases of like my ownership of this place. it's this weird mixed bag of everything here all the time, and that's -- that is the identity. that i don't know. it allows a certain freedom. >> my desire to wear cowboy boots and put a hat on right now, you're sympathetic to that? >> well, i'm from new mexico and yes, i would also like to put my curse word kicking boots and a

hat. >> very kind of you. >> well, sure. >> tony, i've got a question for you. what do you think of new mexico? kind of what are your thoughts? >> i'm going to try to boil it down to a simple statement. if you're an easterner and you come out to new mexico, you start to see metaphors in everything. but actually, if you were to stretch a little bit, you could say that new mexico is a perfect metaphor for america. it is a total mutation. it's got spanish, mexican, original american, and add a tinge of radioactivity. this is what america really is. to one degree or another, we are an immigrant culture. we are a gun culture. the expression of american power and identity has always been the lone cowboy with a gun. that goes deep. this is the heart of the american dream. love it or hate it, this is it. love it or hate it, this is it. ♪

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