They have dedicated their lives fighting to get it back. The drive to fight was instilled in them as children, the sisters agree, by their parents, who in turn were taught by their parents, that justice won t be served until their land is returned to them by the U.S. judicial system. Don t drop this. Mancillas and Trevino have spent the last 20 years digging up legal documents, including wills, land grants, and sales records, from all over the United States and Mexico. While the purpose of the lawsuit is to gain their land back in the future, they aim to re-write history with their book.
Mexican people don t know what happened to their ancestors, and why they don t own land here.
According to Mancillas and Trevino, the land granted to their ancestors encompassed a significant portion of the property in the Rio Grande Valley. Yet in 1845, when General Zachary Taylor came to the Valley with his troops, many of the Mexican families fled, leaving their land open for Anglo squatters which, according to the book, include some of the Valley s most prominent families such as the Kings, Kenedys and Stillmans. Now, with the court case only three months away, and the book published last month, the sisters said that their struggle is almost over. However, Mancillas expressed mixed feelings about its end. I tell people I wish I could get this over with, and get on with my life.