Being new to town in Artesia, New Mexico can be a bewildering experience for many “import” individuals and families. Small town New Mexico continues to rely on a lot of word-of-mouth recommendations and intel which works surprisingly well in this region if individuals are connected to a larger network of folks who are locals or long-time residents; however, there is always a frame of time before new individuals and families make connections to those with roots in the area. Many imports roll into town without knowing a soul in the community.
In that interim period, it’s difficult to find bearings in the community. The initial impact of the major statues, corporate buildings, and refinery complex gives the appearance that Artesia comes with many big city amenities when in fact, the community operates on a much smaller scale. The expectation, therefore, that many new community members have of Artesia is that there are numerous ways to access information about local businesses, goods, and services.
Before imports begin to make those connections, they turn to the internet and to social media to search for goods and services they require. Oftentimes those search queries do not yield much accurate or descriptive information about city government, local businesses, or amenities as it would in larger places which, at first glance, Artesia maintains a lot in common with because of large-scale public art and major industrial hubs.
Lack of information and lack of awareness about where to find information creates frustration in newcomers and can lead to complaints and “bashing” the City of Champions. Southeast New Mexicans are some of the friendliest folks in the nation and are easy to have conversations with even as a complete stranger in the grocery store, but it’s unlikely that anyone new to town would walk up to a resident and ask them where they had their haircut or which gym they use. For these kinds or basic questions, it’s important to be forthcoming with information to connect imports to the region to the things that they need.
