LETTER: Land grant article has errors

Editor,

I was very glad that the Daily Lobo published an article on the oral presentation I gave on April 24 as part of the Dolores Gonzales Colloquy Series sponsored by the Raza Graduate Student Association and the Graduate and Professional Student Association at UNM.

My presentation was on the 1960s Chicano/Hispano Land Grant Movement in New Mexico under Reies Lopez Tijerina. I thought the coverage of my presentation in the article titled "Land Grant Battle Focus of Student's Analysis" printed April 25 was OK. However, I would like to correct a couple of errors that I noticed in the article.

The land grant rights organization founded by Tijerina called the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (the Federal Alliance of Land Grants) was organized in 1963, not 1967. This organization actually disbanded temporarily, but was reorganized and renamed the Alianza Federal de Pueblos Libres (the Federal Alliance of Free City-States) in 1967. I also want to make clear that during my presentation, I explained how Tijerina and those who joined the Alianza advocated the re-establishment of the original property-owning system of land grants in New Mexico issued by the Spanish or Mexican government prior to American expansion in the Southwest in 1848.

Furthermore, I reviewed the legal interpretations and historical ramifications employed by Tijerina and those involved in the Alianza who claimed that the same basic legal principles pertaining to land ownership established under Spanish and Mexican rule should have remained in effect after 1848. Although unsuccessful in their attempts to have the federal government implement a remedy to the New Mexico land grant issue during the 1960s, Tijerina and his supporters brought forth a greater awareness of the issue, and encouraged people to think about who should really own the land based on information from historic documents concerning land rights in the Southwest.

The overall argument I made in my presentation was that Tijerina and his supporters strongly believed, and probably still do so today, that those who inherited land grants given under Spanish or Mexican rule should not have had their lands fraudulently or unjustly taken away, as was the case for many of them throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. I believe the land grant issue is still important today because many people of Spanish and Mexican descent whose families have resided in New Mexico for many generations may, at one time or another, have inherited land grants. Nevertheless, the New Mexico land grant issue continues to remain, for the most part, unresolved. Perhaps the only viable way to settle the issue is through the court system. Overall, this issue is still a very important subject to investigate and analyze.

I know researching the Alianza Federal de Pueblos Libres documents at the Center for Southwest Research in Zimmerman Library provides essential insights into the controversy surrounding this issue, as well.

B. James Barrera

UNM graduate student