Title: Reies Tijerina | American activist | Britannica
Headings: Reies Tijerina
Reies Tijerina
American activist

Content: Two years later Tijerina joined families who had been dispossessed of their lands in the late 1800s in an appeal to the Mexican government to petition the United Nations to force U.S. compliance with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although they were ultimately unsuccessful, that appeal served as a catalyst for Tijerina’s interest in land grants and the injustice he perceived in the historical dispossession of Chicanos and Latinos. After researching land-grant titles in Mexico City and Spain, Tijerina popularized the land-grant movement during the early 1960s on a daily radio program, The Voice of Justice, and in a regular column in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s News Chieftain. In February 1963 Tijerina established La Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Land Grants). La Alianza’s first convention included 800 delegates representing 48 New Mexico land grants and voted to focus on two major grants in northern New Mexico: the Tierra Amarilla and the San Joaquín del Río de Chama. La Alianza’s initial membership consisted primarily of the descendents of the original heirs, but the organization grew rapidly and gained national attention in October 1966 when members occupied the Echo Amphitheater, a natural rock formation that rests on the San Joaquín land. The group reclaimed the land as the Republic of San Joaquín and even arrested two forest rangers for trespassing. Since the organization could not afford to fund a trial, La Alianza charged the government with the burden of proving who owned the land. After five days La Alianza members turned themselves in, and five, including Tijerina, were charged with assault on government officials.