"Tierra o Muerte"
date: label: Date made
content: 1967
notes: label: Description
content: Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the annexation of Texas, the land claims of many Mexican families were not respected, either by the new English-speaking settlers or by the U.S. government. Dispossession from family- and community-owned lands dealt a severe economic blow to the livelihood of generations of Mexican Americans. The issue of land evokes especially bitter memories in New Mexico. In 1967, the year this poster was made with the slogan <i>Tierra o Muerte</i>, meaning <i>Land or Death</i>, a Hispanic land rights organization called La Alianza, led by Reies López Tijerina, raided the Rio Arriba County courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. In addition to reclaiming land from the government of New Mexico, the goals of the raid were to free imprisoned Alianza members and to arrest the district attorney who was prosecuting them as communists and outside agitators. The raid on the courthouse was ultimately unsuccessful and Tijerina served time in a federal prison. Although seen by some as a divisive figure, Reies López Tijerina was as recognizable as Cesar Chavez to many Chicano activists of the late 1960s. Mirroring similar political tensions in the African American community, Chicano civil rights activists were torn between leaders such as Chavez, who advocated nonviolence, and leaders like Tijerina, whose political strategy was decidedly more militant.
label: Description (Spanish)
content: Seguidamente al Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo y a la anexión de Texas, los reclamos territoriales de muchas familias mexicanas no fueron respetados, ya sea por los nuevos colonos de habla inglesa o por el gobierno de Estados Unidos. La expropiación de tierras a las familias y comunidades que las adueñaban fue un severo revés al sustento económico de varias generaciones de mexicoamericanos. La cuestión territorial evoca memorias amargas en Nuevo México. En 1967, año en que fue creado este póster con la leyenda <i>Tierra o Muerte</i>, una organización de derechos territoriales hispana llamada La Alianza, dirigida por Reies López Tijerina, allanó el palacio de justicia del condado de Río Arriba en Tierra Amarilla, Nuevo México. Además de reclamar tierras al gobierno de Nuevo México, los objetivos de la incursión eran liberar a los miembros encarcelados de la Alianza y arrestar al fiscal de distrito que los acusaba de comunistas y agitadores externos. El allanamiento del palacio de justicia terminó fracasando y Tijerina fue arrestado en una prisión del gobierno de Estados Unidos. Pese que se lo percibió como una figura que ocasionó divisiones, para muchos activistas chicanos de finales de la década de 1960, Reies López Tijerina constituyó una figura tan famosa como la de César Chávez. Replicando tensiones políticas similares dentro de la comunidad afroamericana, los activistas por los derechos civiles chicanos se debatían entre seguir a líderes tales como Chávez, quien abogaba en contra de la violencia, o líderes como Tijerina, cuya estrategia política era decididamente más militante.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New Mexico, Tierra Amarilla, Tierra Amarilla area
title: label: Title (Spanish)
content: "Tierra o Muerte"
topic: label: Subject
content: Civil Rights Movement
label: Subject
content: Latino
label: Subject
content: West
label: depicted
content: Bandito
label: related event
content: Land Protest Movement Led by Tijerina
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ethnic
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content: Government, Politics, and Reform
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Mexican America
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1990.0654.01
label: catalog number
content: 1990.0654.01
label: accession number
content: 1990.0654
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sign, protest
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: silk-screened (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 11 in x 8 1/2 in; 27.94 cm x 21.59 cm