Reies Tijerina facts for kids
Reies Lopez Tijerina (born September 21, 1926 – died January 19, 2015) was an important activist. He led a movement in the 1960s and 1970s to help families in New Mexico get back their land. This land had been given to their ancestors by the Spanish and Mexican governments a long time ago.
Tijerina spoke up for the rights of Hispanos and Mexican Americans. He became a key person in the early Chicano Movement. He also started a group called the Alianza Federal de Mercedes. As an activist, he taught people in communities, worked with the media, and tried to reclaim land. He became well-known for an event in 1967 at the Tierra Amarilla courthouse.
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Early Life and Beliefs
Reies Tijerina was born in Falls City, Texas in 1926. From 1950, he spent several years as a pastor and traveling preacher.
A New Community
In 1956, Tijerina and 17 families wanted to buy land in Texas to create their own community. When Texas land was too expensive, they bought 160 acres in the desert of Southern Arizona. They used $1,400 they had saved together. This land was near the Tohono O'odham Native American reservation. It was a quiet place, perfect for a community that wanted to live away from the "vanity and corruption" of cities. They especially wanted to protect their children from public schools.
At first, the families, called "los Bravos" (the Brave Ones), lived under trees. Soon, they dug shelters underground and covered them with old car parts from garbage dumps. Tijerina got permission to build a school for their children. He and other men spent three months building the schoolhouse, but it was later burned down.
The community members became friends with their neighbors, especially African Americans and Native Americans, like the Pima Indians. Tijerina often helped these groups with legal issues. School officials from Pima County visited the community, encouraging them to send their children to public schools. However, the families believed they had the right to teach their own children.
On April 18, 1956, Tijerina's daughter, Ira de Alá, was born. She was the first person born in the community. Tijerina chose her name, which means "Wrath of Allah", because he felt God was unhappy with how the government and religion were managed. Later, a jet crashed on their land. Officials came to remove the plane but did not check on the community. Soon after, some young people rode horses over their underground homes, damaging them. The community repaired their homes, thinking it was just a prank. But then, two homes were burned down. Tijerina tried to report it, but officials refused to investigate.
After a big storm flooded their community, Tijerina felt very sad. One night, he had a vision that gave his life new purpose. He felt a strong conviction that he had a special job to do.
Learning About Land Rights
In the early 1950s, someone suggested Tijerina use his energy for politics. A man told him, "What the Spanish-American people need is a Spanish-American politician, you may be that... you should study law and history and help your people." In June 1956, Tijerina visited a community in Monero, New Mexico. There, he learned about land grants, which were a big issue for Hispanic property rights. Older men told him how their families had lost their lands. They took Tijerina to other towns to meet more families who had lost land.
Tijerina felt for these families and offered to help them, if they would unite. He learned that they no longer had the official papers for their land, as they had been given to Governor William A. Pile in the late 1800s. Tijerina decided to go to Mexico to study the issue.
He stayed in Mexico for several months, researching old documents like the Laws of the Indies, which had governed the Spanish Empire in the Americas. He also found a special version of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which promised to protect land grants for the original owners' families. Tijerina realized that a big problem was the "fear the Anglo had placed in [the land grant-heirs'] hearts through their foreign education."
In January 1957, Arizona education officials threatened Tijerina and other parents with jail if they didn't send their children to public school. Even when Tijerina showed them Supreme Court cases that allowed homeschooling, the officials did not stop. Tijerina believed the real reason was that a large company planned to build a city near their community. He tried to get the local newspapers to cover the story, but they didn't.
Tijerina faced legal problems, including being accused of theft. He was also accused of helping his brother escape from jail. He had to leave the Valley of Peace community and became a person who had to hide from the law for seven years, traveling through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. During this time, he continued to research land rights and the U.S. Constitution. He felt that U.S. law didn't protect families enough.
In May 1958, Tijerina spoke to a group of land grant heirs in Chama, New Mexico. During his speech, he was attacked. His brother, Anselmo, was arrested for defending him.
In 1959, Tijerina went to an archive in Guadalajara, Mexico, to find documents about New Mexican land claims. The documents were hard to find and seemed to have been hidden. He was often called a "Communist" and a "bandit" in the news. In September 1959, he organized a strike in Shamrock, Texas, to protest unfair working conditions for Mexican workers. The cotton farmer agreed to the workers' demands.
Tijerina found a place to live in Ensenada, New Mexico. There, he learned about the Santa Fe Ring, a group of ranchers and government officials who had taken land from grant owners between 1848 and 1904. He also learned that the U.S. government had claimed parts of the Tierra Amarilla land grant for the Forest Service.
In December 1959, Tijerina sent a letter signed by about eighty families to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, asking him to investigate the land claims. The response was not helpful. So, Tijerina and his supporters turned to the government of Mexico. He wanted to give a petition with 500 signatures and historical documents to President Adolfo López Mateos. In Mexico City, he met a labor leader who offered to help for a large sum of money. Before he could meet the president, his documents were stolen. Tijerina returned to the United States, very disappointed.
He went back to Mexico in late 1961 and met with General Lázaro Cárdenas. The General offered his support but warned him that this fight might involve serious conflict.
Forming La Alianza
In August 1962, while in Albuquerque, Tijerina wrote the first plan for the Alianza Federal de Mercedes. This group, known as La Alianza, was officially started on February 2, 1963. This was the 115th anniversary of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Tijerina was chosen as president. The Alianza wanted to teach the families who owned Spanish land grants about their rights. The group also wanted to build pride in the heritage of Native New Mexicans and gain respect for them from others. The Alianza started a newspaper, and Tijerina wrote a weekly column. In June 1963, the Alianza sent letters to the U.S. and Mexican governments, reminding them of their duties under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
By 1964, the Alianza had over 6,000 members. A year later, it had grown to 14,000 members. By 1966, there were 20,000 people in the Alianza. However, some New Mexican Hispanics were not happy with Tijerina, seeing him as an outsider causing trouble. For example, U.S. Senator Joseph Montoya spoke against Tijerina, saying he caused "agitation, rabble-rousing, or creation of false hopes."
To promote the Alianza's cause, Tijerina planned a trip by car to Mexico. While preparing in Mexico, he was stopped and sent back to the U.S. by Mexican officials. This upset many Alianza members who hoped Mexico would take their case to the United Nations. Tijerina suspected the FBI was involved in his deportation.
On April 1, 1965, Tijerina started a daily radio show called "The Voice of Justice." The radio station, KABQ-FM, was a good way to reach the community about land issues. In August 1965, he also started a TV show.
March to Santa Fe and San Joaquín
In 1966, Tijerina went to Spain and learned a lot about Spanish laws for land grants. When he returned, he planned a protest march for July 4 from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. It was called "the Spanish American March for a Redress of Grievances." During the march, some white New Mexicans shouted mean words and even shot at them. When they reached the capital, they met with the governor and demanded an investigation into the theft of communal lands.
When their requests to the government didn't work, the Alianza decided to take direct action. In October 1966, Alianza members took over part of "Echo Amphitheater Park," which was part of the San Joaquín del Río de Chama land grant. The Alianza declared it the "Republic of San Joaquín del Río de Chama." The families who were descendants of the original settlers chose their own leaders. When two forest rangers tried to remove them, the new marshals arrested the rangers. The rangers were found guilty of trespassing and released.
After five days, the Alianza members turned themselves in. Out of 300 people, only five—Tijerina, his brother Cristóbal, and three others—were charged with attacking the rangers and using government property. They had to pay $5,000 each for bail.
Courthouse Event
After being released on bail, Tijerina called a meeting of the Alianza in the village of Coyote. On June 3, 1967, District Attorney Alfonso Sánchez ordered police to break up the meeting, claiming the Alianza was inspired by communists. Police set up roadblocks to arrest Alianza members. During the meeting, eleven Alianza members were arrested. Tijerina and others avoided arrest and met near Canjilón, where they said the arrests were illegal.
On June 5, 1967, Tijerina led a group to the Rio Arriba County courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. Their goal was to free the arrested members and to make a citizen's arrest of Sánchez for stopping their meeting. Tijerina didn't know that the judge had already freed the members, and Sánchez was not at the courthouse that day. During the event, a prison guard was shot, and a sheriff's deputy was hurt. The Alianza members left for the mountains of Canjilón with two people they had taken from the courthouse.
The Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico ordered the National Guard and many police groups to find and arrest everyone involved. This became the biggest search in New Mexico's history. The news called Tijerina "King Tiger." A popular song, The Ballad of Río Arriba, was written about the event. The next Monday, Tijerina gave himself up in Albuquerque.
The courthouse event got national attention and connected Tijerina's land grant fight to the larger Chicano and civil rights movements. He met with activists like Rodolfo Gonzales. Tijerina was found guilty of some charges related to the event. He appealed his case, but the convictions were upheld.
Poor People's Campaign
In March 1968, Tijerina was chosen to lead the Chicano group for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) Poor People's March on Washington. Even after sad events like the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April, the march continued. Under the new SCLC president, Ralph Abernathy, the march happened on May 2, 1968. Tijerina, with three busloads from New Mexico, joined other Hispanic groups and African American groups in "Resurrection City." Tijerina wanted the Native American groups to lead the march first, a plan that Dr. King had approved. But when it was time to march, some of Abernathy's followers disagreed. News reports talked about this disagreement. On May 29, Tijerina organized a protest in front of the United States Supreme Court building. Police were rough with the protesters, but eventually, twenty people were allowed to meet with a court official. The next month, leaders met with Secretary of State Dean Rusk. On June 23, 1969, Tijerina returned to Washington to try to make a citizen's arrest of the new Chief Justice, Warren E. Burger, but Burger left through a back door to avoid him.
Supporters of Tijerina formed the People's Constitutional Party in 1968.
Later Years and Legacy
In early 1970, Tijerina was sent to prison for charges related to the 1967 Tierra Amarilla courthouse event. He chose to defend himself in court. The prosecution's main witness even said that Tijerina was not to blame for what happened. Tijerina argued that the government had to follow international treaties, like the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which protected land rights. He also said he had a right to make a citizen's arrest of officers who had violated the Alianza's right to gather peacefully.
Tijerina was sentenced to two years in a federal prison. He was held in La Tuna, Texas. He was later transferred to a hospital in Springfield, Missouri. There, he thought deeply about history and human relations. He focused on finding a "solution for peace among humanity" and a new goal: "to promote friendship and harmony among human beings."
One of the rules for his release in 1971 was that he could not lead the Alianza. However, Tijerina continued to speak up for land rights, for human unity, and for an investigation into the death of a prison guard from the courthouse event. The League of United Latin American Citizens supported the land grant cause in 1972.
He lived in El Paso, Texas, after spending about a year in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, starting in April 2006. After his New Mexico house burned down in 1994, Tijerina moved to Uruapan, Michoacán, where he married for the third time. He gave his historical documents to the University of New Mexico on October 19, 1999. On November 5 of the same year, he met with staff from then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush's office to discuss land issues. His life story, which was first published in Spanish in 1978, was translated into English in 2000.
Reies Lopez Tijerina died in El Paso on January 19, 2015, at the age of 88.
Images for kids
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Reies Tijerina, around 1966
See also
In Spanish: Reies López Tijerina para niños
