Neither Accidental Nor Intended: Pregnancy as an Adolescent Identity Project Among Hispanic Teenage Mothers in Doña Ana County, New Mexico

Social scientists have dispelled teen pregnancy’s public characterization as inherently pathological and instead frequently study teen reproductive practices as the result of either socioeconomic and cultural constraints or individual processes of identity construction. Through semistructured interviews with 15 young Hispanic mothers in southern New Mexico, I consider both macro-level contexts and individual-level identification processes in understanding teens’ reproductive decision making. Highlighting narratives of sexual and reproductive passivity in the region’s impoverished colonias, I describe how young women in these communities explained their pregnancies as the result of what I have termed sterility cuentos, their boyfriends’ false stories of sterility. I go on to tease apart the contradictory narratives of girls in metropolitan Las Cruces who called their pregnancies accidents despite wanting and planning to become pregnant. Through thematic narrative analysis, I argue that teen pregnancy can be thought of as part of a larger adolescent identity project in which teens in particular social locations reproduce, negotiate, and/or reconstruct various axes of their identities through their reproductive decisions within the context of significant constraints. I conclude by considering implications for teen pregnancy prevention efforts in light of this vast diversity in how Hispanic teens become pregnant and experience motherhood.

Resistance to Glyphosate in Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) Populations from New Mexico Pecan Orchards

Two populations of Palmer amaranth suspected of being resistant to glyphosate have been reported since 2007 in pecan orchards in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. The objectives of the study were to confirm and evaluate the level of resistance, to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative herbicide mechanisms of action, and to compare the cost of effective alternative herbicides for weed management in pecan orchards. Greenhouse experiments indicated that the resistant populations were able to survive glyphosate at 736 g ae ha−1. Compared with a susceptible (S) population, one of the resistant (R) populations had sevenfold resistance to glyphosate. POST application of 12 herbicides, with five different mechanisms of action, all provided at least 88% control of both R and S populations when applied at their recommended field rates. PRE application of trifluralin and metolachlor also provided more than 99% control of R and S populations. The results of field studies indicated that the financial benefit of season-long weed management with glyphosate, in pecan orchards, was comparable with some of the tested alternative herbicides.