How the Border Crossed Us: Filling the Gap between Plume v. Seward and the Dispossession of Mexican Landowners in California after 1848 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Cleveland State Law Review, 2005
, the son of a cowboy-land speculator-politico father. During the Great Depression, Woodie traveled west in search of land and employment, eventually finding himself in California. See Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, Woodie Guthrie's Biography, at http://www.woodyguthrie.org/biography.htm (last visited Sept. 13, 2003). 4 Plume v. Seward, 4 Cal. 94 (1854). 5 See J. GORDON HYLTON ET AL., PROPERTY LAW AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST: CASES AND MATERIALS 27 (1998). The Plume opinion is reproduced in its entirety in the Hylton casebook, which I used in my first-year Property course. Id. at 24-25.
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 1992
The B ourland and Mil ler Commission, I have traced the [land] title back to the King of Spain, who got it by right of discovery and conquest, ancl since he ruled by Divine Right, hat takes it back to Gocl Almighty himself, ancl that is as far as I can go.-Attributed to the old abstractors of'the Rio Grande Valley T IIE HISTORY OF ALL NATIONS BEGINS WITH T H E STORY OF MOW THE land was explored, occupied, ancl tamed. In the Texas case, the process lasted two hundred years, from the late seventeenth-century Spanish exploratiolls of central and eastern Texas, to the late nineteenth-century opening of the high plains to irrigated agi-icnlture. As the most valuable and exploitable natural resource during that span, land became integral to Texas's development and, as with all valuable natural resources, a principal object of cultul.al, economic, and political 'For n general lristory of Sparlislr ant1 kIrsic;~n s c u l r~~l c n t ;111tl I;lr~tl tlislrili~~rioll i l l SOIIIII ;ultl
The Blighted History of the Alameda Land Grant: Montoya v. Unknown Heirs of Virgil
Natural Resources Journal, 2008
New Mexico is blessed with a unique and varied landholding history, as the arid land here has passed through the hands of several sovereigns with competing ideologies and interests. This article follows, through that conflicted history, a special tract of land nestled against the Rio Grande on the northwestern edge of the city of Albuquerque. The tract of land was once known as the Alameda Land Grant because of its beautiful grove of trees and the fact that it was granted to a Spanish officer and his family for his service to the throne. The story revealed here includes details on the granting of the Alameda Land Grant in 1710 under Spanish law, the Grant’s travels through the rigorous confirmation process required by U.S. law, and an in-depth legal analysis of the case that ultimately dismantled the Grant, Montoya v. Unknown Heirs of Vigil. While the main focus of this article is Montoya’s legal underpinnings, some time is spent discussing the consequences of those legal determinat...
Land Grants and Lawsuits in Northern New Mexico
Hahr-hispanic American Historical Review, 1995
Calderon, Coatsworth, and Schmidt, which emphasize and explain the breadth of the railroads' impact, her conclusion emphasizing the same theme is not original. Her final observation-that these works represent the railroads as leading only to small, foreign enclaves of economic dynamism and that new, revisionist studies of the railroads are therefore necessary-is puzzling. Even so, the author cer tainly shows considerable historical learning and ability in research, analysis, and synthesis. She should produce an impressive dissertation.
Loyola of Los Angeles international and comparative law review, 2019
Habitats are often divided by international borders, leaving ecosystems in varying states of protection, development, and danger. The California Floristic Province, which traverses the United States-Mexico border, is one such example. This border, which divides a once-continuous ecological region, not only represents an international crossing, but also a shift in legal, land, and conservation regimes. These differences reveal particular vulnerabilities for California Floristic Province habitat on the Mexican side of the border region, showing that the ecosystem is in danger because of rapid real estate development pressures and unfavorable environmental laws. Accordingly, this note recommends three main changes to Mexican environmental law, to bring it more into line with United States and Californian environmental law. The first is to provide for organizational standing a la Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, so that plaintiffs can file on the basis of group standing, where injuries can be more generalized. The second recommendation calls for the Mexican government to increase transparency in its environmental agencies and provide individuals the legal mechanisms, through citizen suits, to compel enforcement where it is lacking. Finally, this note recommends the Mexican government give protected status to its portion of the * * Joseph Edwards Farewell, J.D., is a graduate of Loyola Law School. He also holds an M.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University and a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College. He serves as Conservation Chair with the Los Angeles / Santa Monica Mountains Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and is a proud environmental activist. He would like to extend his deepest gratitude to his wife Becky Farewell, Professor Maureen Johnson, Arlen Printz, Brianna Franco, and the rest of the Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review staff for their assistance in the creation of this Note.
On California's 1920 Alien Land Law: The Psychology and Economics of Racial Discrimination
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 2004
Scholars have recently highlighted a critical, but previously neglected, facet of racially discriminatory public policies—such policies may be motivated by either economic or psychological forces. That is, racially discriminatory policy may be the result of self-interest and competition in the face of scarcity or prejudices and affects based on group identities. We test if these motivations were behind the passage of an important, openly discriminatory public policy: California's Alien Land Law of 1920. We find that neither motivation alone accounts for the initiative vote that passed this law; both played a role. Our analysis also illustrates how racially discriminatory policies in the early 20th century fit into the ordinary politics of the day.
"By Force of Expectation: Colonization, Public Lands, and the Property Relation"
UCLA Law Review Discourse
Not-guilty verdicts, mistrials, and impunity for the Bundy family and many of their supporters in the armed confrontations over public land use in Nevada and Oregon. Expanded access for private oil, gas, mining, and logging industries and the downsizing of national monuments such as Bears Ears lead by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. A number of highly contentious debates and sensationalized events have again focused attention on land held in the public domain by the United States. This essay argues that federal land policy as a form of colonial administration has been constitutive for the logic of expectation as property in what is now the United States. From the state land cessions negotiated on behalf of the Articles of Confederation to the preemption acts (1830–1841) to the homestead acts (1862–1916) to present-day demands for land transfer, the acquisition and disposal of the so-called public domain have been central to westward colonization, the consolidation of the nation-state, and the promise of land ownership as the ostensible foundation of individual liberty. These dynamics are evident in contemporary conflicts over public lands and arguments for the transfer of public lands to either state or private ownership. Approaching the Bundy occupations as flashpoints that illuminate competing interpretations and claims to land within the history of westward colonization, this essay seeks to demonstrate the ways in which expectation emerges from particular economies of dispossession of indigenous peoples that have historically worked through and across the division of public and private property.