Mexican Land Grants: A History of Racial Injustice

Legal and Political Machinery Behind the Theft

In the 1800s, Mexican landowners in South Texas were cheated out of their land by American settlers and government officials. This was due to a number of factors:

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War in 1848, did not explicitly protect Mexican land grants. This left the door open for American settlers to claim Mexican land as their own.
American settlers often had more political power than Mexican landowners. This allowed them to influence government officials to dispossess Mexican landowners of their land.
American courts often ruled in favor of American settlers in disputes over land ownership. This further marginalized Mexican landowners.
As a result of these factors, many Mexican landowners like Antonio de la Garza were forced off their land. This had a devastating impact, not just on future Becerra generations, but also on many other Texas-Mexican landowners as well. Many Mexican families lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their way of life.

Mexican Land Grants and Lies

The Mexican land grants that were issued by the Mexican government were in effect, not always recognized by the United States government. This was because the United States government did not recognize the sovereignty of Mexico over the territory that it had acquired in the Mexican-American War.

As a result, Mexican landowners were forced to prove that they had owned their land before the war in order to keep it. This was a difficult task, and many Mexican landowners were unable to meet the burden of proof.

The dispossession of Mexican landowners was a major injustice. It was a violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the rights of Mexican citizens. It also had a lasting impact on the Mexican community in the American Southwest.

Mexican landowners were cheated out of their land:

In California, American settlers often filed fraudulent claims to Mexican land grants. These claims were often based on forged documents or on false information.
In New Mexico, American settlers frequently intimidated and threatened Mexican landowners in order to force them to sell their land.
In Texas, American officials often refused to recognize Mexican land grants. This forced many Mexican landowners to abandon their land or to sell it at a fraction of its value.

The dispossession of Mexican landowners was a major injustice that had a lasting impact on the Mexican community in the American Southwest. It is important to remember this history and to work to ensure that such injustices do not happen again as we remember our ancestor's plight.

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Racial Injustice in Refugio, Texas

Becerra Land Grant As most of us know now, in 1832, the Mexican government bestowed a first-class land grant of two leagues (8,856 acres) to Manuel Becerra. The land grant was approved by the ayuntamiento (town council) of Goliad and by the then-Tejas-Mexican governor, Francisco Vidaurri. However, when James Power and James Hewetson's Colony was established in 1834, Becerra's land was not surveyed or included in the colony. This suggests that racial injustice occurred between the white colonists and the existing Mexican landowners as evidenced by Abel Rubio’s book, Stolen Heritage. Yet the following facts are the facts and help shed light on their importance in what was to become known as the great theft: Irish Colonists, Omission of Becerra One, the Power and Hewetson's Colony was a group of white Irish immigrants who came to Texas in 1833. The colony was founded under the provisions of the Colonization Law of 1825, which allowed empresarios to recruit imm...

Old Maps and Deception

Well, it may come as no surprise to some, but I needed to validate this map search for myself and perhaps others in the group. Remarkably, what was said by Rubio speaks out in the maps. I was fortunate to access the Texas General Land Office database in Austin . More specifically, I was able to locate all the maps that were relevant to the story timeline. These Refugio Co maps date from 1850 - 1875. They are relevant only because they date the span of time the de la Garza's were on the land. Looking at them I was disappointed to see that all 5 original maps did not contain a Becerra or de la Garza name. Now, this is where it gets interesting. It's simple, 1. Becerra and de la Garza families lived in a parallel universe and the rest of Refugio lived in another, as in the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, 2. They knew who was on the land but didn't care to investigate. Instead allowing Anglo colonizers to take it outright and not bother as to w...

To Understand, We Go to the Beginning

So how do we come to understand historical outcomes? How can we come to understand the gaps that exist between a series of events? The natural thing to do is to look at the byproduct of a chain of events that took place over 150 years ago and to draw assumptions. Yet assumptions can never be trusted. Assumptions can be correct, or they can lead us astray, they can lead us into a wilderness of non-existent facts and narratives that can't be tested. I do think the natural byproduct we have come accustomed to is the end result. This end result as we all know by now is the plight of Antonio de la Garza and his family. Yet, the more important question to ask is how did it all begin? How did history lead us to this point? I believe that in order to understand this chain of events and to see it with a clear lens is to take a step back and start at the beginning. I have a good idea now as to whether Becerra's claim to title is valid or not. I plan on showing that it was. But I...

Stolen Heritage Revisited

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