Las Gorras Blancas

Las Gorras Blancas (Spanish for "The White Caps") was a group active in the American Southwest in the late 1880s and early 1890s in response to Anglo-American land grabbers. Founded in April 1889 by brothers Juan Jose, Pablo, and Nicanor Herrera, with support from vecinos in the nearby communities of El Burro, El Salitre, Ojitos Frios, and San Geronimo.

History

Once the northern Mexican frontier became part of the United States, Anglo Americans began migrating in large numbers to all of the newly acquired territory. Anglos began taking lands from both Native Americans and Mexican Americans by different means, most notably by squatting. Squatters often then sold these lands to land speculators for huge profits, especially after the passing of the 1862 Homestead Act. Mexican Americans demanded that their lands be returned to them but the governments did not respond favorably. For example, the Surveyor of General Claims Office on New Mexico would at times take up to fifty years to process a claim, meanwhile, the lands were being grabbed up by the newcomers. One tactic used to defraud Mexican Americans from their lands was that they needed to present English language documentation of ownership, which, due to previously being part of Mexico, could only present Spanish language documentation. While the Santa Fe, Atchison, and Topeka railroad was built in the 1890s, speculators known as the Santa Fe Ring, orchestrated schemes to disland natives from their possessions. In response, Mexicans gathered to reclaim lands taken by Anglos. Hoping to scare off the new immigrants, they eventually used intimidation and raids to accomplish their goals. They sought to develop a class-based consciousness among local people through the everyday tactics of resistance to the economic and social order confronting common property land grant communities. The name comes from the white head coverings many wore.

Tactics

1890s, a depressed Northern New Mexico economy adversely. Communal lands dictated by the original land grants were increasingly being 69 split up and fenced off as private land, and pastures were not as plentiful. This was most felt by the small Hispano farmers who relied on the communal lands to raise their stock. The Gorras Blancas tore down fences, burned barns and haystacks, scattered livestock and threatened worse if justice did not prevail. Additionally, a group of White Caps under the direction of Juan Jose Herrera "set thousands of railroad ties afire when the Atchison,Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad refused to raise the low wages it paid Hispano workers." Moreover, numerous demonstrations of men on horseback, wearing white caps, rode through the Las Vegas, New Mexico streets at night typically ending at the Courthouse.

In August 1890 several members of las Gorras Blancas ran for state office in a new populist People's Party under the name el Partido del Pueblo Unido. Pablo Herrera, Nestor Montoya, and T.B. Mills were all elected and most forms of direct action the group was known for ceased. All three were unsuccessful in passing populist legislation, however, and left the state government disillusioned with political reform. Herrerra, in a speech to the House of Representatives in February 1891, stated:

Gentleman, I have served several years time in the penitentiary, but only sixty days in the legislature. I have watched the proceedings here carefully. I would like to say that the time I spent in the penitentiary was more enjoyable than the time I have spent here. There is more honesty in the halls of the Territorial prison than in the halls of the legislature. I would prefer another term in prison than another election to the House.

Pablo Herrera returned to Las Vegas and attempted to revive las Gorras Blancas but was murdered by sheriff Felipe Lopez. Some time after the movement died, Juan Jose Herrera left New Mexico and settled in Utah, where he died several years later.

==Declaration==6969696

PINIZ

I WANT TO 69

Further reading

• Las Gorras Blancas of San Miguel County. New Mexico Office of the State Historian.
• Speech by Felix Martinez regarding land and Las Gorras Blancas, Las Vegas Daily Optic, August 18, 1890.
• Arellano, Anselmo F. The Never-Ending Land Grant Struggle.
• Correia, David. (2010) "Retribution Will Be Their Reward": New Mexico's Las Gorras Blancas and the Fight for the Las Vegas Land Grant Commons. Radical History Review, 2010:108, 49–72. Abstract retrieved November 29, 2010.
• Miller, Michael. Las Gorras Blancas: The Roots of Nuevomexicano Activism