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| In telling the story of the memory of the land, we must include Spanish and Mexican land grants, as notions of ownership and imperialism inevitably dictated the fate of Mexicans and indigenous people as governmental rule transferred hands. Land grants existed before Mexico ceded land to the United States. Spanish land grants, which can be traced back to the 17th century, existed in what is now New Mexico, and Mexican land grants in the researched area span present day New Mexico and parts of Colorado. Spanish land grants were established for different reasons, as rewards for military service, to encourage settlements, or to delineate boundaries of provinces. Many land grants were also made during the quarter century of Mexican rule, and the Mexican government seemed to follow the pattern set by Spain, granting land to individuals and communities through petition. After Mexican land was annexed to the United States, including much of Chihuahua, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848 insured the rights of private ownership of land to Mexicans. Mexicans living on the ceded land had the option of retaining their Mexican citizenship or becoming U.S. citizens, either way maintaining their rights to their land. Subsequently, the Gadsden Treaty of December 30, 1853 was created to transfer additional territory and solve boundary disputes, and deemed land grants invalid unless they were "located and duly recorded in the archives of Mexico." The territory that was severed from the Mexican state of Chihuahua and claimed by the United States between 1836 and 1853 embraced 26 Spanish or Mexican grants. Mexicans who inhabited this land were able to petition for land grants in accordance with the Act of the State of Chihuahua of January 15, 1849 which authorized the Commissioner of Emigration in Mexico to grant immigrating livestock owners a league of vacant public grazing land as pasture for their animals. This ownership of this land was to be legally protected by the United States. However, at various points the United States has chosen to create new laws which make the previous agreements invalid (violating international laws), or simply to ignore the rights of the people inhabiting the land, attempting to erase the memory. Several of these land grants are currently being contested in New Mexico and Colorado with the U.S. government, representing the force of a growing sovereignty movement nationwide. |
