Hot or Mild?

It is late afternoon on a Saturday, and the weather is warm with a slight breeze. The fields are less populated than usual without youth football occupying half of the complex. Soccer is still in full swing, though. 

Not having eaten all day, I decide that it is necessary to overspend on junk food at the concession stand. Despite some ridiculous prices, the concession stand always has a sizable line. People seemingly have no problem paying two dollars for a small bag of chips or three dollars for a Gatorade. 

One thing in particular that has caught my eye is a line of writing on the board of prices. Under "chips $2.00," written in sharpie is "con Valentina $0.50." Honestly, I had no idea what this could mean. What could people want with a bag of chips? 

Almost instantly, my question was answered. A young Hispanic boy ordered Doritos con Valentina. The man behind the counter popped open the bag of Doritos, went to the back of the stand, and put four pumps of hot sauce in the bag from an industrial sized bottle of hot sauce. Calling that container a bottle is a bit of an injustice. It was enormous. I doubt that I could go through that much hot sauce in my lifetime. 

This made me wonder, is this a common way to eat chips in New Mexico? I nonchalantly leaned against a wall near the stand and decided to see how many people ordered their chips "con Valentina." 

Over the next half hour, I learned a lot about the way that people like to eat chips. About half the people who ordered chips had hot sauce added. Most of the people who did not add hot sauce were adults. The few adults who added hot sauce were all hispanic. Children, however, seem to love hot sauce. They put that s*** on everything! Nearly all of the children added hot sauce to their chips. Two Caucasian girls were the only ones who decline to add hot sauce. 

This is not to say that white people were avoiding the hot sauce. Lots of Caucasian children added hot sauce, with the two girls being the only exception. I think that spicy food is a big part of the culture in New Mexico. People who have been brought up in this culture probably like spicy food more than those who have not. This would explain why adults who are maybe new to New Mexico would decline the hot sauce, but their children prefer it because they have spent the entirety of their lives in New Mexico, eating spicy food.