14-02-2025
Breadwinner: Committee advances proposal to make tortilla NM's ‘state bread'
Sen. Joshua Sanchez (R-Bosque) is carrying a bill this session proposing tortillas as the state bread. (Photo by Leah Romero / Source NM)
From state bird and state flower to state guitar and state aroma, New Mexico has a long list of state symbols, with yet another proposed this legislative session.
Senate Bill 315 would make tortillas the official bread of New Mexico, an idea that comes from Las Cruces student Adaline McIntosh. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Joshua Sanchez (R-Bosque), passed through the Senate Indian, Rural and Cultural Affairs Committee Thursday on a 4-1 vote. Sen. Antonio Maestas (D-Albuquerque) was the only member to vote no, 'for the fun of it,' he said.
'I was having breakfast with my family and I was just sitting there and we went over the state symbols for our New Mexico history study that we're doing in school,' McIntosh told committee members, explaining how she came up with the idea.
McIntosh's brother, Braden, worked several years ago with Sanchez to get Senate Bill 392 passed by lawmakers and signed by the governor. The bill required the Department of Game and Fish to provide youth programs in all five game districts in New Mexico and to allow donations to the programs.
Committee members quickly voiced their support for tortillas as the state bread, though some threw out sopapillas as a possibility as well.
Sen. Bill Soules (D-Las Cruces), a member of the committee, said he enjoys this type of bill because it is a teaching opportunity for students in the state. Soules sponsored a bill two years ago to declare the smell of roasting green chile the state aroma, a first for any state in the U.S.
'I think they are an important part of our elementary education. When the kids learn, they learn and are proud of things about their state,' Soules said during the meeting. 'And certainly if you ask anyone about the state bread for New Mexico, it's going to be the tortilla. I mean, it's almost so obvious, why haven't we done it before?'
Soules also pointed out that there are tourism and publicity benefits for the state with such bills. The fiscal impact report for the bill highlighted benefits to the agricultural sector in New Mexico as well, with an added demand for tortillas.
SB 315 heads to the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee next.
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