that had 80 members rolling around on the floor fighting one another. pulledthe members another man's weight off and another one yelled, he scalped him. [laughter] that was enough levity to stop the fight. >> that is tonight at 8:00 q&a -- on cue and a desk q&a. >> american history tv is joining our comcast cable partners to showcase the history of new mexico. to learn more about the 50's, visit c-span.org/citiestour. --begin you with the history we continue with the history of las cruces. in new mexico, chile pepper's is

one of our main crops. a lot of times, food is grown in areas because of the culture. if you look at wisconsin, they make a lot of sauerkraut because of the immigrants. here we have a lot of chile pepper's. what people do not realize is chile's artan native to a tropical rain forest. -- chilies are not native to a tropical rain forest. they are really happy with rain every three days. in 1540, francesco vess goes coronado came up on a mission to introduce spanish rule to new mexico. he introduced agriculture to the pueblo indians. in 1598, they really established a presence of the spanish in new mexico. they said the pueblo indians

would grow chilies under the spanish agriculture. before then, there was what they called the waffle system. they have little squares where they would plant and catch the rainwater. the spanish introduced irrigation to bring water from the river to irrigate fields. they had incorporated that into their chile. we had chile beans growing here for a long time. then, in the late 1800s, we had a professor that was our first horticulturist and in our first graduating class. his mission was to find new crops for farmers to grow. then they were growing cotton, corn, that was it. he began to look at different horticultural products.

he looked at fruit trees, sweet onions, he introduced pecans to the area which is a major crop. he also looked at chile peppers. at the time, they were only being grown in backyards and what they called kitchen gardens. he thought of we made them milder they could get more people to eat them. he began a breeding program. interbreeding some of these local chilies and he began to select for his unique pod type. in the early 1900s, he released the new mexico number nine. a new pod type. farmers began to grow it, people like it, and it began a new industry here. they began to can it so they could ship it back east. it began the process of building up an industry. dehydrating the red chile's and canning and freezing the green chiles.

now there was one chile that fit that niche for all. if you made a mexican food dish, you would use different chilies. we weren't as sophisticated back in the day so mexican food had chile spice to it. now you could have one chile, grow it, process it, and it could be used in the mexican food industry. so we did not have all these different kinds of chiles. it was the basis of the mexican food industry, so we always say he was the father of the mexican food industry. the chile pepper institute was established in 1983. our mission statement is to educate the world about chile peppers. with a long history of chile pepper research from the founding of the university to today. one of the things we noticed at our teaching garden is, people come in from all over and say,

that is from my country. we were trying to export to asia. the asian market told us we did not have good quality. we did not know what they meant because we had good color, no insects, no disease or mold. we didn't understand why and we said they are putting up a barrier. only learned over time talking to people is that the chile has a different kind of heat. we weren't sure we knew what they were talking about. we began to study what we call a heat profile. every chile has five components to heat profile. the next time you read chilies, how fast is the you develop? is it a quick heat or delayed heat. does it dissipated quickly or linger four hours? the third is the heat, is at the

-- is it at the tip of your tongue, your lips, your throat? the next one is what i like to call it sharp or flat. sharp is like sticking with the heat. flat heat is like a broad heat in your mouth. the fifth is the heat level mild, medium, hot. is asian culture wants that sharp heat and they wanted to be a fast heat that dissipates quickly at a high level. once we discover that, we found that almost all of ours had the flat heat. hadound one variety that the sharp eat. we sent people back to try. they said they liked it, he it was good. --, they said it was good. so now we had chile to make

kimchi, noodles, stuff like that. we realized that was the quality. they could not explain it, but that was the heat profile. we were interested in it because if you think of the food industry, they want to a fast heat that dissipates quickly. medicinenet chile heat is used in, ointments, ligaments, that is how you kill pain, you are putting in a little heat for pain. so we were starting to make chile that would be medicinal besides the food industry. chile pepper's is one of the few agriculture types. it adds about $5 million annually to the economy. we look at the farm gate with the raw product, it is worth about $50 million.

but, it is worth 10 times that when you look at the processes, people to hire for the industry. it is a nice vertical integration industry. people who are really into chile are known as chile heads. we have people all around the world that contact us, and send us seeds. one of our members was in found ad said he chile that is really hot. he sent a seed and we grew it. the first year we looked at it and said this looks pretty hot we should do replicated trials to see how hot it is. next year, we found out that was the first chile to ever get one

million scoble heat units. we introduced ghost pepper for good or bad to the united states. the ghost pepper was the hottest, our colleagues in trinidad said ours is hotter. they sent us -- we said, send us the seed and we will test it. we tested the trinidad scorpion. we found one variety that hit 2 million. institute, that is still the world hottest. guinness has its own way to decide what is hottest. for the institute, being

research-based, we have to grow with controls and do it a scientific way. some people say, guinness say some is the world hottest, you say it is hotter. at the institute, we have found trinidad -- the trinidad scorpion is the world's hottest. here at what we call the center for chile pepper knowledge, we have expanded our products. one thing we've done is we have a public-private partnership. that's with cajun foods. after we discovered the ghost pepper, they came and said we want to help you. we want to make a hot sauce. we said we do not just one hot sauce that people can't eat it. flavor is important. i think that is the future of chiles, flavor. we would like to make a hot sauce to help you raise funds. we are self supporting.

we get no help from the university except they pay the electric bill. so, we have to be self-sufficient. they said, we would like to help you with a hot sauce. they made formulations, we tested it, and then we worked with the university relations and came up with a hot sauce. it is hot but it has flavor. one of the things we have been trying to do is that chilies have flavor. from that product we have talk andauce, salsa, spice rub, whole set of products available here. in new mexico, chile's are more than just an economic crop. it is part of our culture. in new mexico, we have an official state question. is it red or green. -- green? when you go to a restaurant you

will be asked if you want red or green enchiladas. when people leave new mexico they miss that green or red chile. when they come back, they have to have that dish. our cities tour staff recently traveled to new mexico to learn about its rich history. learn more about las cruces and other locations at c-span.org /citiestour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. -- where weller history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created by america's cable television companies. today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the supremeuse, court, and public policy events in washington dc and around the country. c-span's brought to you by your cable or satellite provider.

>> next, on the civil war. one historian talks about the experiences of the men and women who fought and supported the confederate brigade. this is title the soldiers and families of the texas brigade. she spoke at the civil war institute conference to read this is about one hour. >> good evening, everyone. i'm a member of the history department. it's my pleasure this evening to announce the first inaugural lecture. many of you know go bore -- gabor.