Reies Tijerina - Flight

Flight

Tijerina spent the next seven years as a fugitive in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. By this time he had seven children, and had to leave them with his wife. While on the run, Tijerina continued to research communal land rights, the U.S. Constitution, and the rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The biggest weakness he saw in U.S. law was its failure to provide specific protection for the family.

In May 1958, he was invited to speak in front of a group of land grant heirs in Chama, New Mexico. During his speech, he was attacked and struck over the head with a club. In the ensuing melee, Tijerina was removed to safety and his brother, Anselmo, was arrested for assaulting Tijerina's attacker.

In 1959, Tijerina went to an archive in Guadalajara, Jalisco. When he requested the documents concerning the New Mexican land claims, the attendant was unable to locate them. His nephew from Pleasanton Texas then hid the files in his house in the closet. The last person to access the documents was an American commissioned by the Mexican government to convert them to microfilm.

The authorities came close to apprehending Tijerina many times, and he was maligned in the local press as a "Communist" and a "bandit". In September 1959, he organized a strike in Shamrock, Texas, in protest of unequal working conditions for Mexican laborers. When thus confronted, the cotton farmer gave in to the strikers' demands.

Tijerina secured housing in Ensenada, New Mexico, where he came into further contact with members of the Brotherhood of Jesus, who told him of Thomas B. Catron's leadership of the Santa Fe Ring, a group of ranchers, and government officials who systematically dispossessed the land grantees and their heirs of their claims from 1848 until 1904. He also became aware that the federal government itself had claimed portions of the Tierra Amarilla grant in the name of the Forest Service.

When Tijerina's brother Margarito was released from prison in Michigan City, Tijerina took advantage of the opportunity to meet with Elijah Muhammad. They met daily over the course of a week, during which time they discussed the need for unity between the minority groups of the United States.

On December 12, 1959, Tijerina sent a letter signed by some eighty families asking President Eisenhower to investigate the land claims. Two months later, they received a cold response. Having failed to receive redress of their grievance from one signatory of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Tijerina and his supporters turned to the government of Mexico. His goal was to deliver a 500-signature petition, historical documents, and legal opinions to President Adolfo López Mateos. Arriving in Mexico City, Tijerina made the acquaintance of the labor leader Vicente Lombardo Toledano, who listened patiently to the story of the struggle of "the forgotten community" over the land, and offered to do what he could for the price of $25,000. Having failed to reach López Mateos via Toledano, he turned to other acquaintances in the religious and academic communities. But before he could meet with the president, his documents were stolen during a visit to the post office. Devastated, Tijerina returned to the United States, along with his nephew Johnny Tijerina.

He returned to Mexico in late 1961 and succeeded in obtaining an audience with General Lázaro Cárdenas. The General offered his support, but warned auspiciously, "if you are not willing to see blood spilt, forget about all of this."