To understand politics in New Mexico is to understand how the state’s voters are deeply connected to their history and generational roots.

As the NewsHour examines the political battleground of New Mexico this week, New Mexico State Historian Estevan Rael-Galvez offered his insights on the factors that have shaped the state’s unique history. Among them: race relations, tourism and a “nuclear” economy.

Rael-Galvez also shed light on how genealogies of many New Mexicans can be traced back to before the U.S. was fully established and how that lends to a complex electorate.

“It’s complex as you say, who does the past belong to and how can we trace those layers? In New Mexico, you have to pull back those layers to understand that complexity,” Rael-Galvez said.

Read more about New Mexico’s history here.