In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

CHAPTER NINE TEJANO RANCHEROS AND HISPANIC LANDHOLDING IN THE SOUTHWEST, 1848-1900 Most historians, such as David R Weber and Rodolfo Acuna, agree that the crucible of Mexican American history is the period from 1848 to 1900, when the old settlers, the Mexicans, and the new arrivals from Europe and the United States forged significantrelationships that shaped the society and economy of the region. With land as the basis of wealth for most of the settlers, competition between the two groups intensified, and as Mexican Americans lost control of these lands, they lost wealth and status in society. One of the central questions guiding this study of Tejanos in the Lower Valley is their displacement from the land. Specifically, I have examined the issues of the timing and manner in which land loss occurred in south Texas. This final chapter presents a brief comparative study of mejicano or Hispanic land tenure in the Southwest in the second half of the nineteenth century. What follows then is a short description and analysis of Hispanic land-grant history and adjudication and land loss in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Texas. Lastly, I address the question whether, comparatively speaking, the experience of the Lower Valleyregarding land tenure was as harsh as asserted by historians and other social scientists. THE NEW MEXICAN EXPERIENCE As the oldest and one of the most isolated former Spanish-Mexican settlements in the far northern frontier, New Mexico's land-tenure system evolved with unique peculiarities. Three or four developments stand out. First, due to the 259 2,60 Chapter Nine length of occupation, about one thousand land grants were made in New Mexico during the entire span of Spanish-Mexican rule. Second, the majority of the land grants were made in the names of a group of settlers instead of individuals . These grants were basically community grants intended for the benefit of all vecinoswho were party to the grant of land. Third, settlers in New Mexico's frontiers retreated back and forth to their lands as a result of Indian attacks, which resulted in the same land being granted over and over to settlers. Fourth, the property rights of the preexisting Pueblo communities were respected. The Hispanic land-grant dynamics can be viewed in the history of the Canones region of north central New Mexico, where the first lands were granted in the 17305. The first grant there was awarded to a Spanish soldier, and the second to three Montoya brothers from the town ofAbiquiu. The Montoya family acquired the rights from the soldier, but in 1745 Ute Indians attacked and forced the settlers to leave the frontier. The original Montoya grant, Piedra Lumbre, was reoccupied in 1760 by a relative of the Montoyas named Pedro Martin Serrano. Martin Serrano then requested and obtained from the governor a grant de novo to the land. A cousin of Martin Serrano also asked for and received a grant south of Piedra Lumbre. This grant was smaller in area, but on the lands of a previous grant, the Polvadera, which the Montoyas had acquired earlier, in 1740. In the early nineteenth century, a third grant was made in the area, and it too experienced a similar history. This grant, the Canones or Pederales, was a grant to Juan Bautista Valdez, his family, seven companions, and presumably, their families. In 1818, Navajos drove the settlers away, and the lands were later reoccupied. On April i, 1824, the new settlers, now led by the eldest son of Juan Bautista Valdez, took formal possession of the land from the alcalde.1 Partly asa result of the complex history of New Mexican land tenure prior to the war with Mexico, land-grant adjudication consumed more time in New Mexico than anywhere else in the American Southwest after 1848, and the methods and rules adopted were not only burdensome but ultimately unfair. In New Mexico, land claims were subjected first to a legislative process in Washington, D.C., and then to a judicial system in which the standards for judging claims were rigorous. By imposing such a process and placing the burden on the claimants, the chances of obtaining confirmation were slim and those for defeating claims were high. Consider the evidence. Of the 1,000 or so land grants in New Mexico, claimants asserted their rights to only 212 grants. Prior to 1891, the U.S. Congress confirmed 48 claims out of the 212 presented to the surveyor general for determination. The federal government then...

Share