Atrisco Land Grant

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The Atrisco Land Grant is one of the few remaining land grants left in the United States.

[edit] History

During the period of Spanish rule over the American Southwest, various monarchs of Spain would create land grants to reward their subjects or for the purpose of creating common land for settlers. In 1692 King Charles II of Spain created the Atrisco Land Grant as a reward to Don Fernando Duran y Chavez. Don Fernando Duran y Chavez was responsible for putting down an uprising of a tribe of Pueblo Native Americans. It originally consisted of 41,533 acres (168 km²), but in 1760, an additional 25,958 acres (105 km²) were granted in an attempt to calm land disputes.

After the Mexican-American War, land grants in the territory ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo were to be respected by the United States Government, however because of the language barrier, and unscrupulous government officials, many land grants were essentially stolen. However, the Atrisco Land Grant remained intact.

In 1967, the Legislature of New Mexico granted permission to the Atrisco heirs to form a private corporation, the Westland Development Company, which manages the land. Each of the heirs received shares of the company, and today there are more than seven thousand heirs. These shares can only be transferred among other heirs.

The future of the Atrisco Land Grant is uncertain. At this time, the Westland Development Company is attempting to sell the land. The city of Albuquerque is growing quickly, and the Atrisco Land Grant is the most desirable area for the development of new residential areas. While many of the shareholders are enthusiastic about the sale and the income it would bring to each of the heirs, others are reluctant to part with their 300 year old patrimony.

Westland Development Company finalized a sale of the land to SunCal, a land-development corporation out of California, in December 2006. The sale price was $315 per share.

The sale of Atrisco is still in dispute, for many factors that are related. Such as U.S. Government records indicate they failed to fully consider, find and identify the entire history of Spanish Land Grants, and had only verified about 25% of the "original and subsequent blood heirs".

Some of these disputes have resulted in multiple lawsuits throughout the last two centuries, of which some have been heard and ruled on in the U.S. Supreme Court. Some have also related to past and current litigations pertaining to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848).

The significance of Atrisco, besides it's historic aspects, is also its native cultural aspects with the various tribes, who described the area to Don Diego de Vargas as Atlixo (surface of a body of water) in their native Nahuatl language.

Atrisco is the central point of the historic "El Camino Real" Spanish trail and the Road to El Dorado. From Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, the trail turns left to a southern route and it was this trail, that went directly to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, modern day Mexico City.

Later the trail was made to the west. The western portion of the trail is what colonized Arizona, California, which at the time ended in San Bernardio and eventually the city of El Monte.

The trail would continue up along the Pacific Coast. Where the familiar "Sheep herder hook, hanging Bells" marked the old Spanish mission trails.

Spain made plans to meet with the President of Mexico sometime in August 2007 regarding the Hidalgo Treaty and other issues, as well as the border disputes and immigration issues and concerning the U.S. and Mexico.

(http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_8489.shtml) (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070629/misplaced-barrier/)