A New Mexico proposal seeks to draw tourists to a historic Hispanic and Native American trail that once linked early Spanish settlers from Mexico City to an area just north of Santa Fe, according to an article by US News.

State Rep. Andrés Romero sponsored the bill that aims to erect landmarks from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in northern New Mexico to southern New Mexico along a route that connected the regions for hundreds of years. Said bill also calls for the state to allocate $5 million to create a commission that would review and come up with ways to draw visitors to the trail, also known as Jornada del Muerto (the Journey of the Dead Man).

"The El Camino Real is really a story of New Mexico and our rich and cultural diversity of the state," Romero said.

 

Some of the money would be allotted in helping towns and tribes in their promotion efforts of their territories included along the trail.

The U.S. Congress in September 2000 declared El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Spanish for "The Royal Road of the Interior Land") as a National Historic Trail. The binational trail whose three-quarters passes through the central highlands of Mexico, carries an extensive European settlement story highlighting the shared history and heritage of Spain, Mexico, Native American tribes and the American Southwest.

The route, spanning three centuries, two countries, and 1,600 miles, was part of Spain's Camino Real Intercontinental, a global network of roads and maritime routes. In the United States, the trail stretched from the El Paso area in Texas, through Las Cruces, Socorro, Belen, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe to Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), the first Spanish capital in New Mexico. The trail's 16th-century origins pre-date both earlier colonial settlements of Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.

The El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro belongs to the U.S. National Park Service's National Trails system. However, the historic trail lacks many markers and infrastructure to become a tourist attraction in New Mexico.

Romero said Mexico and Texas are investing heavily into their respective parts of El Camino Real.

Although El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro served as a main route for Spanish explorers, it also was trailed by Estebanico, a black Moroccan slave who explored present-day Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It was said that Estebanico is the first person of African descent to step on the present-day American Southwest.