The Land Struggle and Reies Lopez Tijerina

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Recommended: Relationship between Mexico and the United States right now

Mexico, once home to ancient cultures like the Maya and Aztec which ruled vast territory expanding from present day South America all the way up north to present day western United States now reduced to roughly half its size. The cause of this dramatic loss of land was contributed to the expansion of the United States and secession of southern provinces, now Central America. The loss of land not only affected Mexico’s presence of power but also affected hundreds of thousands of native people. This was just the beginning of what would come to be known as the land struggle and the fight for land grants, something the United States government would not acknowledge nor recognize.

The Treaty of Guadalupe was the beginning of a new era amongst Mexico and the United States, which would forever change how the US and Mexico would deal with each other. The purpose of the treaty was to end the Mexican-American war. It consisted of fees America would pay to Mexico and in return it would separate the US and Mexico border along the Rio Grande. Mexicans living on the new American side of the Rio Grande had the choice to move south to Mexico or stay on American soil and become citizens. More than 90% of these Mexicans would stay on the US side and accept to
Wong 2 become American citizens. Once citizens, these new Mexican Americans would have to learn new laws, the official language which was English, and prove the land they lived on belonged to them. This is where the language barrier, lack of knowledge of their rights, and lack of representation played against them. According to American Law, the US did not recognize documentation written in Spanish. The Mexican Americans would have to convert their documents to English and find a lawyer to...

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...l Paso, Texas with his third wife. His original residence in New Mexico was burned down in 1994. He then moved to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Uruapan, Michoacan where he met his third wife. His memoirs once only available in Spanish in 1978, published by Mexico’s Fondo Cultural Economico was republished in 2000.

Works Cited

Rodolfo F. Acuna. Occupied America: A History Of Chicanos, Seventh Edition. Longman: United States, 2007. Print.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reies_Tijerina Internet

Ramon Renteria http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_19947092 El Paso,Texas, 2012. Internet

Lorena Oropeza http://newmexicohistory.org/people/reies-lopez-tijerina Internet

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Guadalupe_Hidalgo Internet

Facts on File, History Database Search http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=ASL239&SingleRecord=True Internet

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