Violence in New Mexico: A Sociological Perspective

Abstract

In an era when violence is becoming a more frequent response of minority groups to their unique legal problems, Professor Knowlton probes the causes of a violent incident involving Spanish-Americans in New Mexico in 1967. He discusses, from the perspective of a sociologist, the numerous and complex causes of the historical conflict between Anglo-Americans and Spanish Americans. More specifically, he discusses the various ways in which the Spanish Americans have been deprived of their land and the failure of the legal system to adequately protect their rights. He describes how racial prejudice, violence, corruption, a dearth of legislative imagination, and an unfamiliar legal system have combined to deprive Spanish Americans of millions of acres of land and leave them destitute. Unable to protect their rights by legal methods, many Spanish-Americans have sought leaders among those who advocate and practice violent solutions. Professor Knowlton concludes that further violence can be expected unless the Anglo-American legal system becomes more responsive by incorporating Spanish-American concepts of land ownership and honoring Spanish-American land claims.

Locality and custom: Non-aboriginal claims to customary usufructuary rights as a source of rural protest

“…The fourth is customary usufructuary claims based on old Spanish land grants (Knowlton, 1970;Trillin, 1976).…”

Returning Land Tenure to the Forefront of Rural Sociology

“…The lengthy U.S. Department of Agriculture bibliography on landownership (Hannay et al 1953) frequently refers to the work of rural sociologists on land ownership issues at home and abroad. .Representatives of the domestic work are Bertrand (1962), Galpin and Hoag (1919), Knowlton (1970), Kolb and Brunner (1940), Lundquist and Carver (1927), Rankin (1932), Schmiedeler (1941), Smith (1940), Taylor (1927), and Taylor and Zimmerman (1923). Numerous human ecologists, environmental sociologists, and others have brought land ownership to the fore more recently and are cited in the papers contained in this issue.…”