HOUSE MEMORIAL 67

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

Patricia Roybal Caballero

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE PASSAGE OF AN ERA OF SOCIAL ACTIVISM SIGNIFIED BY THE PASSING OF REIES LOPEZ TIJERINA.

     WHEREAS, Reies Lopez Tijerina died on January 20, 2015; and

     WHEREAS, no history of twentieth century America will be complete without an examination of what became known as the "Chicano Movement", multiple campaigns for social change that included several leaders who were born in or lived in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, no history of twentieth century New Mexico will be complete without an examination of the efforts and activities of those activist leaders, and in particular, of Reies Lopez Tijerina and the organization he founded, La Alianza Federal de Mercedes, the federal alliance of land grant communities; and

     WHEREAS, defining the significance of the efforts of Reies Lopez Tijerina and La Alianza Federal de Mercedes requires examining the historical context in which they took place; and      WHEREAS, after the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the single largest governmental, social and cultural challenge faced by the New Mexico territory and much of the American west was the incorporation of a large, established population of formerly Mexican citizens into the new body politic; and

     WHEREAS, in the generations following the war, most of the farming communities that had received community land rights under Mexican law lost those lands, many due to convoluted legal decisions that tried to interpret Mexican land law through the prism of United States land law; and

     WHEREAS, in 1963, Reies Lopez Tijerina founded La Alianza Federal de Mercedes, commonly referred to as La Alianza, a New Mexican organization with the aim to return traditional community lands to dispossessed farming communities and using methods that started with public awareness campaigns but that grew in intensity; and

     WHEREAS, the premise of La Alianza was that the heirs to the traditional township community lands, referred to as mercedes or land grants, had received protected property rights under the terms of the treaty commonly referred to as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that had ended the Mexican-American War; and

     WHEREAS, the efforts of Reies Lopez Tijerina and La Alianza inspired a new generation of community leaders and increased public awareness of the role that land grant communities have played in the development of New Mexico's unique culture; and

      WHEREAS, the efforts of the current generation of land grant community leaders have led to a 2001 congressional general accounting office report on the history of land grant communities and the loss of their community lands; the creation of an interim land grant committee by the New Mexico legislature; laws establishing some community land grants as political subdivisions of the state; and the creation of a Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo division within the office of the attorney general;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the passing of Reies Lopez Tijerina be recognized as heralding the passage of a national era of civil rights and social activism that started in the 1950s and provided the foundation and motivation for continued social activism in pursuit of equality and justice today; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Reies Lopez Tijerina be recognized for bringing issues to the forefront of public discussion that had a significant impact on the culture, politics and laws of New Mexico; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of cultural affairs.

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