policies and legacies. you are watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend, on c-span3. this weekend, american history tv is joining our comcast cable partners to showcase the history of las cruces, new mexico. to learn more about the cities on our current tour, visit www.c-span.org/citiestour. we continue with our look at the history of las cruces. peppersw mexico, chile is one of our main crops. times, foods are grown in areas because of the culture. if you look at wisconsin, they grow a lot of sauerkraut because of the german immigrants. here, we have the hispanic population. chile peppers were part of that culture, so it was to grow them here. they are native to the tropical rain forest. they like a 72 degree day, at

rain every few days. we have adopted them to this climate. in 1540, francisco vasquez the coronado came up on an expedition to introduce this to new mexico and introduced agriculture to the public indians. 1598, he came up to establish a presence of the spanish in new mexico. the pueblo indians were growing chilies under the spanish agriculture, because before then, the pueblo indians through them in awalk -- grew waffle system to catch the rainwater. the spanish introduced irrigation to bring water from the river to irrigate fields, and so, they had already incorporated that into their

chilies, so we have had chilly beans growing here for a long time. late 1800s, when it got founded, we had a professor here named garcia that was our very first graduating class and our very first horticulturist. his mission was to find new crops for the farmers to grow, and at that time, they were cotton, corn, alfalfa for cattle, and that was it. he began to look at a lot of different horticultural crops, fruit trees, sweet onions, he brought in seed from spain that is the basis of sweet onions in the united states. he introduced kahn's to the area -- pecans, which are major crop. chiliesought if he made milder and more uniform, he would get non-hispanics to eat

a breeding he began program of interbreeding some of these local chilies, and began unique paths a type. he released new mexico number nine. he introduced this new pod type. farmers began to grow it. people liked it. it began a new industry and we it so we could ship it back is on the trains so it again the whole process alcohol industry, dehydrating the red chile, and canning and freezing the green chiles. up until that time, if you had ade what we would say is mexican food dish, you use , but now,chilies there was one that fit that niche. we were not as sophisticated so mexican food was anything that had chilly spice to it, so you it,d have this, grow

process it, and it could be used in what we are calling the mexican food industry at that time. it really became the basis of the mexican food industry in the united states, so it is the father of the mexican food industry. the chile pepper institute was .stablished in 1993 our mission statement is to educate the world about chile peppers. we have a long history of chile pepper research from the founding of the university until today. thatf the things we notice are teaching garden's people from all around the world will come in and see their chilies. from mymy chile country, and we were trying to toort at one point a chile asia, and the asian markets will thus we did not have good quality. we did not know what that meant because we had the color. we did not have insect parts or anything, disease, mold. we did not understand why. they are putting up a barrier. what we learned over time

through talking to people is the chilies had a different kind of heat and we were not sure what they were talking about, so we began to study what we call today a heat profile, and every aile has five components to heat profile, so the next time you eat chilies, watch how fast does the heat develop? does it come on quickly or is it a delayed heat? how long does it linger? does it dissipate quickly or linger for literally hours for some people when they consume it? the third one is where do you sense the heat? tip of your tongue, lips, mid-palate, back of the throat? the fourth one is interesting, sharp or flat. sharp heat is like pins sticking your with the heat, like a prickly heat. a flat heat is like it has been painted, some people call it a broad heat in your mouth. the fifth is the heat level. mild, medium, hot, our heat units.

asian culture wants the sharp heat, and they want it to be a fast heat that dissipates quickly at a high level. once we knew they wanted the looked at the new mexico chile varieties, and almost all of them have a flat heat. one variety was hot and had the sharp heat, so we sent some over to asians and said try this one. they said we like this. this is good. now, we literally sent tons of red chile to make kimchi, to do noodles and stuff, because we realized that is what they meant by quality. they could not explain it to us, but that was it, the heat profile. the reason we were interested in this is that if you think of the food industry, they want a fast heat that dissipates quickly, you eat more product. chile heat is used casaizin,is and --

you want a heat that lingers because that is how you kill the pain, so you're putting a little pain, the heat, to get rid of a big pain, so we thought we are going to breed chilies that will be a medicinal extract versus the food industry, so that is how we are beginning to look at it. because chile peppers are one of the few agricultural commodities we have with vertical integration, it is worth $500 million. we look at farm gate with the worth $50oduct, it is million. it is worth 10 times that much when you look at the processors. it is a nice, vertical integration industry. the people that are really into chilies are known at chile heads . people all over the world andact us and send us seeds such, and one time, we had heard

about the very hot chile in india that was supposed to be the hottest in the world, and we could not get any seeds to really test it, but one of our india and headset i found this chile here. jolokia, but naga i think it is very hot. he sent us the seed, and we grew it. yes, this looks pretty hot. we should do replicated trials to test us out and see how hot it really is. the next year, we found out that was the very first chile to ever hit one million scoble heat units. chilies like all opinions are 1000, so this was one million, the very first. that became a whole new class of chile peppers called super hot. jolokia translates to ghost pepper in english.

we introduced ghost pepper for good or bad to united states. after we said the ghost pepper is the world hottest, our friends and colleagues in trinidad said ours is hotter. we said send us the seed and we will test it. we tested the trinidad scorpion and we found one variety off the island called trinidad moruga scorpion, it hit 2 million. guinness has their own way of deciding what is hot. for the institute, being a research-based institute, we have to grow them with controls, replicated trials, and do a scientific way, so some people say guinness says something is the world hottest and you say this other. at the institute, right now, we ruga found the trinidad mo scorpion is the world hottest. our, we have expanded

products, and one of the things we have done over time as we have what we call a .ublic/private partnership after we had discovered the lokia,pepper, the bhut jo they said we want to hope you make a hot sauce. i said we do not want just a hot sauce that is so hot that people cannot eat it. flavor is really important, and that is the future of chilies, .oo, is i think flavor we like to make a hot sauce for you to help you raise funds because we are self-supporting here. no support for the university per se, except they pay the electric bill. so we have to be self-sufficient, so they said we would like to help you with a hot sauce. they made formulations. we tested it. we said we like this formulation. it's a really good flavor. then we work with university communications and came up with a hot sauce.oki

it is hot, no christian about -- question about it, but it has flavor. we are trying to educate people that chilies have flavor. we have holy jolokia taco sauce, salsa, spice rub, and a whole set of products available here. in new mexico, chilies are more than an economic crop, something we grow. it is part of our culture. people really embrace this. in new mexico, we have an official question. it is red or green? when you go to a question, you will be asked if you want british a lot of green rediladas -- you want enchiladas or green? they have to have that chile dish. staff cities tour recently traveled to las cruces, new mexico to learn about its rich history. learn more at www.c-span.org/

citiestour. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. nominated to the supreme court by president ronald reagan in 1987, justice anthony kennedy is retiring after 30 years on the bench. monday, we will take a look at his legacy on the supreme court and its impact on the nation. clerk for justice kennedy from 2011 to 2012. and former assistant to the solicitor general, nicole starsky, who argued 29 cases before justice kennedy and the court. watch the legacy of anthony kennedy, monday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org, or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> american history tv is on

c-span3 every weekend. featuring museum tors, films, and programs on the presidency, civil war, and more. here's a clip from a recent program. >> right when we were considering sending peace theyng -- peacekeepers said they were going to send a congressional delegation of about 25 members and i would like you to lead the delegation. i was about four months pregnant at the time. they sent a doctor on the plane with me. still, i went over there. interesting time because i would be interviewed and it was clear i was pregnant. i would get mail from people saying how could you go to this area while you are pregnant? happy i got to go face to face with him as a female and i was not going to take any of his craft.

where has the world gone wrong for me? [laughter] intoe end, we were moving sarajevo to meet with president presidenthich -- the at the time. all these people were standing outside applauding us, saying send peacekeepers, they wanted the united states to come in and help with the situation. as we were walking in there was a woman who grabbed my hand and what you need to, we cannot continue like this. you need to help us, america needs to help us. i said that is what we are here for, we will take as much as we can and bring it back. she grabbed my hand, touched my belly and said i just lost my only son. you are going to be a mother, you are you -- you have to help me.

i got some criticism for going as somebody who was about to have a baby. relative to the conversations we are having, i think it increased my perspective of what needed to be done. sorry about that. >> you can watch this and other american history programs on our website where all of our video is archived. that is www.c-span.org/history. ? >> 2018 is the centennial year of the united states' participation in world war i, and american history tv is marking the anniversary with a variety of programs. recently on american artifacts v