That is such a beautiful sentiment.

And the, the origin of chilies in New Mexico are, we say the Spanish brought it up when they, uh, came up the Rio Grande, but my theory is that we may have had chilies here before then because it was a medicinal plant.

First, v- early on, it wasn't a vegetable or a spice, it was a medicinal plant.

What the early Aztecs used it for, it was a painkiller.

The capsaicinoids gives you a pain, and so your body produces endorphins to block that pain.

So it was a painkiller, and so they used it as a toothache medicine, a sore muscle liniment, and even today, if you go into a, a pharmaceutical store, you'll see things like capsaicin, not spelled like the compound, but it's pronounced the same.

Uh, Heet, H-E-E-T, and these have chile heat as the active ingredient.

They got crops, flowers, vet science, and an extensive enology program for wine.