Spanish land grants in New Mexico

The Spanish, and later the Mexican, government encouraged settlement of the Territorio de Nuevo Mexico (context map) by the establishment of large land grants, many of which were turned into ranchos, devoted to the raising of cattle and sheep. The owners of these ranchos patterned themselves after the landed gentry in Spain. Their workers included Native Americans, some of whom had learned to speak Spanish and ride horses. Of the hundreds of grants, Spain made only a few. The remainder were granted by Mexico after 1821. The ranchos established land-use patterns that are recognizable in the New Mexico of today.

Context map showing the Mexican state of Nuevo México in much of the first decade after Mexican Independence (map represents territorial extent from November 1824 to 1830).

Land grants were made both to individuals and communities during the Spanish (1598–1821) and Mexican (1821–1846) periods of New Mexico's history. Nearly all of the Spanish records of land grants that were made in what is now New Mexico prior to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 were destroyed in the revolt. Thus, historians can often only be certain of land grants that were made after the Spanish Reconquest of New Mexico in 1693. "The two major types of land grants were private grants made to individuals, and communal grants made to groups of individuals for the purpose of establishing settlements. Communal land grants were also made to Pueblos for the lands they inhabited."[1]

Spanish era

During Spanish rule (1769–1821), land grants were typically concessions from the Spanish crown, permitting settlement and granting grazing rights on specific tracts of land, while retaining title with the crown.

Notable land grants in New Mexico

Near Tierra Amarilla

See also

References

  1. New Mexico Commission of Public Records, Land Grants, accessed 28 October 2009.
  2. Paul, Paula (November 1996). "The intriguing provenance of Cottonwood Mall". New Mexico Business Journal. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  3. Damico, Denise Holladay (2009). "Elena Gallegos Grant". New Mexico Office of the State Historian. Retrieved 6 February 2010.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, October 22, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.