Interesting that you should bring up this subject, John. Indeed, the La Raza era times were stressful. I can remember one trip I made to visit Chama during the height of the troubles where I had to go through a highway checkpoint south of Tierra Amarilla which was manned by armed National Guardsmen. Even today there are physical scars of that time visible if you know where to look. The Tierra Amarilla courthouse still has the pockmarks of bullet holes. And the chimney of rancher Bill Mundy's (deceased) house is all that remains of a torch job.
The newspaper article which John West included was very interesting, except I don't think that you can make a one to one comparison between the New Mexico/Colorado experience and California, except to a limited degree. The two cultures and the geography were significantly different.
A major difference was that the large Spanish landowners got legally screwed out of their lands. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago, which ended the Mexican-American War required that the Spanish register their lands granted by the Spanish/Mexican governments be registered with the new US authorities. Small problem: A large segment of the native Spanish population could neither read nor write English. And many times the only legal notification was merely nailed to a tree, if at all. As a result, the royally granted title to their lands became null and void and open for grabbing by less than scrupulous Anglo interests by default.
I'm not that familiar with the history of the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant to know exactly what happened to this land, except that it eventually, by fair or fowl means, the title to the land eventually passed into private ownership, or into US Government control - passing out of the collective ownership practiced under the Spanish land grants.
The results of this still reverberate today to one degree or another in several areas of New Mexico. Fairly recently there was a lengthy legal battle in the Albuquerque area over the ownership of one of the old land grants which had remained intact. I don't think that this is an issue as regards the Tierra Amarilla Land Grant. However, there has been a segment of the Spanish population in the northern New Mexico/southern Colorado are which periodically try to resurrect this issue.
Which brings my discussion back to Reies Tijerina who skillfully used the land grant issue to further his goals. Whether you agree with him or not is irrelevant. But it created the lightning rod he needed.
In this present discussion the delighful movie "The Milagro Beanfield War" has been mentioned. Like most movies, as good as it is, it was able to only scratch the surface of a much more complicated issue. I understand that the author of the source book by the same title - Richard Bradford - demanded to have a major say so on the movie - well beyond what Hollywood likes to grant. (Producer Robert Redford deserves the credit for that.)
As an aside, Richard Bradford caught a great deal of flak over his less than flattering protrayal of the Milagro society where he used a skillful scapel. As a result he wrote two sequels. The first, "The End of The Rainbow" takes place about the same time as the "War", but instead of using a scapel like he did in the first book, he used a sledge hammer on the predominatly Anglo society. If you know the area, you recognize Taos. The third book, "The End of the Rainbow" deals with the hippy era of the 1970's when the whole area seemed to be on an acid trip. Taken together, these three books present a tapestry of the area.
Now (Finally) coming back to the C&TS, I suggest that if you visit that you take time to soak in the rich history and the culture of the area. Although diluted somewhat by time, the currents which shaped the society surrounding the C&TS are still there.
Enjoy.
CJ
