> One of my favorites is that Santa Fe has been the capital city of Nuevo Mexico since 1610. Acoma, another city in modern-day New Mexico, is about 500 years older still
We were taught this in California in elementary school. Spanish colonial history actually tends to be taught at the same time or earlier than East Coast history in much of the American West (usually as "California" or "Texas" or "Colorado" history).
I grew up in Texas and took Texas history. I learned things like Texas being the only US state that was once an independent country and where the Six Flags came from (later the name of an amusement park empire that originated in Texas).
But they never taught us much about New Mexico.
Vermont was also an independent country, and for longer than Texas was.
Yet another thing they didn't teach us in Texas history class.
Not New Mexico but New Spain is heavily taught - it's an entire section.
I also don't know when you were in K-7 but knowing HN's age demographics probably the 1980s to early 1990s.
From the 2000s onwards, New Spain and Spanish rule was prominent.
Here are the snippets of the Texas History textbook from around the time I was in grade school in the 2000s [0][1][2]
[0] - https://worleytxhistory.weebly.com/uploads/8/7/9/6/8796216/c...
[1] - https://worleytxhistory.weebly.com/uploads/8/7/9/6/8796216/c...
[2] - https://worleytxhistory.weebly.com/uploads/8/7/9/6/8796216/c...