What others have to say about "Trespassers on Our Own Land"

     “Al fin, finally! Trespassers on Our Own Land is a comprehensive history of the 1967 Tierra Amarilla Courthouse raid as well as a history of land grant issues that have plagued northern New Mexico for generations. Never-before have the events leading up to the raid, the raid itself, the escape of some of the participants later that evening and the turbulent political history of the era been presented in one narrative. Trespasser’s has finally identified why and how the United States intentionally relieved a number of Spanish and Mexican land grants of millions of acres of treaty protected lands and the fact that the federal government continues to this day to refuse to admit it unlawfully took the land or to compensate the heirs for the taking.”
                                            
                                                              Lawrence E. Sanchez,
                                                              President, Town of Tomé Land Grant
                                                              Adelino, New Mexico

     “Trespassers on Our Own Land is an oral history of the Juan P. Valdez family and a snapshot of the maltreatment forced upon our Pueblo Indian, Spanish and Mexican people by the United States government. In Trespassers, Mike Scarborough has presented a comprehensive history of the adversarial relationship our ancestors had with the United States government between the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and 1912. Trespasser’s brought back memories of my childhood in Coyote and Capulín and a renewed understanding of the difficulties my ancestors endured while struggling to survive on the San Joaquín del Río de Chama land grant. I recommend this book as a must read for anyone interested in an in-depth and comprehensive oral history and study of New Mexico’s land grants.”
                                                         
                                                                            Leonard Martínez, President,
                                                                            San Joaquín del Río de Chama
                                                                            Land Grant Association
                                                                            Cañon de Chama, New Mexico

     “Trespassers . . . is compelling and authentic; occasionally, it is hilarious; sometimes it is poignant. . . . It is fitting that a book that brings this man’s experiences to life is set in the broader context of the history of land grantsmercedes. These mercedes mattered so much to Juan Valdez that he risked his life to bring attention to the enormous injustice [the grantees and their heirs] had suffered at the hands of the U.S. government. In these pages we begin to understand why.”
                                           
                               From the Foreword by Prof. LM García y Griego
                                              History and Chicano Studies,
                                                University of New Mexico
                                                       Albuquerque

A people’s history of loss cries out for redemption

by Armando Rendón

Book Review of Trespassers on Our Own Land, by Juan P. Valdez and Mike Scarborough.

      The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—signed this day 164 years ago—first came to my attention in connection with the news in June 1967 that a group of armed men had stormed the Rio Arriba County courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico: a police officer had been shot, hostages taken, a general furor had been sparked. Reies Lopez Tijerina had been named as the leader and instigator of the takeover of the building: it was from him that I first heard reference to the Treaty and its singular position as the most important document in the history of Americans of Mexican origin.

In my book, Chicano Manifesto, which was published in 1971, I blithely repeated the assertions that Tijerina had made in speeches, some writings, and in one-on-one charlas we had when we met in New Mexico in the late 1960s. Not having a legal background, and largely reporting on the various key protagonists of the Chicano Movement, I simply reaffirmed the notion that the Treaty was primarily an agreement that had been forced upon Mexico as the result of an unjust war instigated by the U.S. government but which mostly contained protections of Mexicans holding property, read “land grants”, in the conquered provinces.

It took me another 10 years or so to come to a different, although I believe complementary, conclusion. During that period, I had to earn a law degree to enable me to understand the Treaty and finally, spend considerable time doing my own research.

Trespassers on Our Own Land, couched as an oral history, with Juan P. Valdez, the descendent of the land grant of that name—land on which he was born and has lived his entire life—as the subject of what apparently is a class assignment assigned to one of his grandchildren by a well-informed college professor.

What Tijerina could not impart—he was neither a New Mexican nor a land grantee—and I could only recommend in legalistic terms, Scarborough encompasses in a work which provokes anger and dismay at one moment only to resolve into poignancy and humorous goodwill in the next.

tresspassersonourownland.com

     To Visit the Trespasser's web site and its two galleries, go to: trespassersonourownland.com.
The galleries can be accessed through the footers at the bottom of each page.
Gallery One contains plates reflecting information contained in the book.
Gallery Two contains maps and other exhibits set out as "Figures" in the book.
  
 If you have any comments relating to land grant history in New Mexico please feel free to either comment or start a new post.
It will be appreciated if posts and comments are limited to  historically significant issues relating to Spanish and Mexican land grants in the Southwest. Thank you!