Pastores and Politics: King Tiger, Hispanos, Land Grants and Chicano Culture
Richard Goodman discusses the life of Reies Lopez Tijerina, his career as an activist and his struggle to return Mexican land grants to the Hispanos of New Mexico. Although born in Texas, Tijerina spent much of his adult life in New Mexico, where he moved after becoming a pastor. There he learned of the plight of the Hispanos whose land Anglo agriculturalists had stolen, and he began his decades long struggle to return the Tierra Amarilla to the town residents of San Joaquin de Chama. In 1966, frustrated with the government’s lack of a response to his appeals, he led the occupation of the Echo Amphitheatre, which was within the pueblo’s land grant, and asserted their right to the land. This incident marked the beginning of Tijerina’s legal troubles, and the state tried for years to send him to jail, finally succeeding in 1970. He was released in 1971, but by he had become a symbol of political repression in the U.S., and he continued to speak out against the crimes of the government. Tijerina preached a message of unity for Chicanos, while also working with black militants and other activists throughout the United States. He has become one of the most well-known and dedicated leaders of the Chicano Movement. Research for this segment comes from Rodolfo Acuña’s Occupied America.
Goodman then discusses the origins and history of the pastoral culture in New Mexico. Using research from Carey McWiliam’s North From Mexico, Goodman explains that the Spanish explorers introduced sheep to the region in 1598. They also brought with them a system of sheepherding that included fixed grazing rights and land grants, both of which the Anglos would later adopt. In the 19th century, New Mexico became the sheep nursery of the nation, and it boosted the U.S. economy by providing wool for textile mills and a market for the growing sugar beet industry. Sheepherding soon acquired an iconic status, complete with its own music and stereotypes, one of which was the solitary, superstitious and witless Mexican sheepherder. However, the job required a very particular set of skills and knowledge, as the pastores, or shepherds, had to be able to track wild animals, read the weather, train dogs and guide the sheep. Sheepherding culture had its own social divisions, with the sheepherder at the bottom, the sheepshearer in the middle and the owner at the top. As the sheepherding industry boomed in the wake of the gold rush, the owners often made large amounts of money, but the sheepherders rarely benefited.
KEYWORDS
1968Alianza Federal de Mercedes
Apache Raids
Apaches
Baptist Preacher
Barter Economy
Bartolomeo Cabeza de Vaca
Black Militancy
Caporales
Carey McWilliams
Chicano Black Relations
Chicano Movement and Latin America
Churros
Citizen’s Arrest
Corky Gonzalez
Coronado
Don Jose Leandro Perella
Echo Amphitheatre
Ejidos
El Tigre
Falls City, Texas
Folk Songs
Francisco Salazar
Gold Rush
Honorable Assembly of the Mesta
Identity
Indian Relations
Juan de Oñate
Kit Carson National Forest
La Confederación de Pueblos Libres
Land Grants
Lieutenant J.H. Simpson
Manuel Chavez
Mayordomo
Merino
Mexican Sheepherders
Music
Navajo
New Mexican Economy
New Mexicans
New Mexico
North From Mexico
Occupied America by Rodolfo Acuña
Pastor
Pastoral Culture
Pastores
Patron
People’s Constitutional Party
Political Crimes
Political Repression
Rangers
Reies Lopez Tijerina
Religious Conversion
San Joaquin de Chama
Santa Paula, New Mexico
Scrubs
Senator Joseph Montoya
Shearing
Sheep
Sheep Drives
Sheep Shearers
Sheepgrazing
Shepherds
Solitary Confinement
State District Attorney Alfonso Sanchez
Sugar beet industry
Tepestras
The Poor People’s Campaign
Tierra Amarilla
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Vaquero
Vihuela
Weave weavings
Wool