John Quinones Standup OC
The actual border line, as we know it today, was established at the end of the US-Mexican war in 1848. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in that year by both countries, guaranteed that those Mexicans who lived in the conquered territory could become U.S. citizens with all the rights associated with citizenship.
In the years prior to the war, many of the Mexican Americans in Texas, California and New Mexico had received land grants from both Mexico and Spain. Under the treaty, ownership of these land grants was to be protected by the US government. But in the years after 1848, Mexican Americans found themselves the target of many efforts to take their land away from them, often in violent and unjust ways.
Although 150 years have passed since the end of the war, the events of that period are under increasing legal attack. The descendants of those who lost their lands are now trying to win in the courts what their ancestors lost so many years ago.
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Produced by Hector Galan
NARRATION
The Rio Grande valley in south Texas, is one of the oldest settled regions in America. Spanning 200 miles along the US-Mexico border, towns here with names such as Mercedes, La Villa, and San Benito were built on original Spanish and Mexican land grants. Over a million Mexican Americans live here and thousands of them have deep roots to the past.
RAMON GARCIA OC
Everyone, basically 90 plus percent of the people that have been here more than let’s say one generation can trace their family tree back to some claim to some part of South Texas. All of them have stories. Families would come in and say "My family used to own this county or this part of the state, or this part of the world, and it was taken away from us by fraud, theft, etc."
NARRATION
Today, in south Texas, thousands of Mexican-Americans are demanding compensation for the lands that they believe were stolen from their ancestors. The stakes are high and worth millions of dollars. And for many of these descendants, the quest to reclaim that land has consumed their lives.
EMMA BALLI OC
I’m 49 years old and I’m pretty angry at this already, because I know how hard it is. I know the battle because this has been a battle to us, to all my brothers and sisters. I know we’re going to get some land back. It’s our land. We shouldn’t be going through this.
NARRATION
The fight for land has created an identity unique to the Rio Grande valley. The Spanish settled this region several centuries ago, issuing hundreds of land grants, and the struggle to preserve that land has lasted through many generations.
ROLANDO HINOJOSA-SMITH OC
The people who came here in 1746 and whose names appear in the 1750 census, when it was still part of Spain, called Nuevo Santander, you can still find the names in all the telephone directories up and down the Valley. De La Garza, Salinas, Trevino, Cantu, Hinojosa.
NARRATION
The families are still there, but the land changed hands many times — first from Spain to Mexico. Then in 1846, the US and Mexico went to war. After two years of fighting, the United States took this territory by conquest. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande as the new border. Overnight, Mexicans north of the Rio Grande became foreigners in their own land.
GALEN GREASER OC
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo basically put a rip right through the middle of an established community along the Rio Grande, an entire cultural and social economic fabric that had been in place for approximately a hundred years in the area.
NARRATION
With Mexico’s defeat, Mexicans living north of the Rio Grande would now be subject to the laws and language of the United States. It would change their lives forever.
The families left behind were promised protection. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo safeguarded their rights and their most valuable resource – their land.
GALEN GREASER OC
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed the property rights of Mexican nationals who were now being incorporated into this new country.
NARRATION
Soon land speculators, promoters, developers, and real estate agents lured Americans to Texas with dreams of owning land.
TERRY MYERS OC
Lawyers, guns, and money came down and effectively took people who were ranchers grazing cattle and then whipped these legal documents on them and they were disenfranchised in many cases.
RAMON GARCIA OC
They came because there was plentiful land for the grabbing. But that land used to belong to Mexicans.
TERRY MYERS VO
What happened in a lot of (OC) places is that American businessmen, entrepreneurs, mercenaries had come down to the border and tried to obtain portions of the land by hook or by crook in some cases.
NARRATION
Mexican American landowners were now suddenly forced to operate under a new language and a new legal system. It wasn't long before they found themselves the target of many schemes – both legal and illegal – to separate them from their lands.
ALICIA MUNOZ OC
People did not abandon their lands. People, you know, were living on the lands and a lot of people were driven off the lands at gun-point, forcibly, and people still owned the land.
CAYETANO BARRERA OC
There was a lot of lawlessness down here..from people that were coming in from Mexico. Their claim was that they were reclaiming some of Grandma’s cattle and the Americans would say they were bandits….so it depends what side of the fence you were sitting on. And there would be atrocities on both sides and a lot of animosity.
MAN AT MEETING
I know what you are doing is for all that we have gone through – the abuse. Los que se robaron y lo que compraron. Compraron las escrituras y se robaron muchos terrenos. [SUBTITLES]
...of what was stolen and what was bought. They bought the deeds and stole lots of land.
NARRATION
Whether they are attending meetings or tracing their family history, many land grant descendants have banded together to fight this battle. All of them have a personal stake in reclaiming the land.
YOLANDA ZARATE OC
These stories that I know from my great, great grandparents--they were very rich and they had a lot of land. Then here they come, and take the lands away, and they put, they called them dumb Mexicans, they don't know anything. They didn't allow them to go to school, they didn't allow them to own anything or to hold offices. So now we, we're considered to be minorities, the dumb ones, the ones that don't know anything.
NARRATION **overlaps with Yolanda starting at "So now we we're.."
For more than 20 years, Yolanda Zarate has dedicated her life to this cause. She is active leading meetings and organizing conventions. Her family has formed an organization to help land grant descendants fight for their land. This group is called the "reclamantes." They hope to be compensated by the government for the loss of their lands
AMINTA ZARATE OC
We are almost 10,000 members. And I have lost, not kidding, I have lost 353 members that have died with the hope that one day they were going to get the money which is very sad and then we have spent $1,863,000 dollars in this organization trying to see if we can get justice.
WOMAN
Like I know that I’m a direct descendant of a land grant owner but the documents don’t exist anymore all we have is the family tree. So what can we do?
YOLANDA MARTINEZ OC
I believe that Congress should get involved. That’s the only way we are going to get compensated because no matter what we have tried, nothing ever prevails. We need to settle this through Congress. Because it is the Congress’ responsibility to once and for all settle this.
RAMON GARCIA OC
We're seeing the Mexican Americans that felt that their families had their lands taken away from them, try to come back and assert their rights, and being able to do it now, and being able to do it in the courts, where I mean you start looking at South Texas, you’re going to find that 90% or more of the judges are Mexican-Americans themselves. And many of them understand what may have occurred back then. So they’re going to be more sensitive to those claims.
MUNOZ
From a lawsuit…
ALICIA MUNOZ OC
My grandmother used to say that her lands, their lands were stolen or taken away from then and that’s one reason that she wanted us to document the family.
RAMON GARCIA VO
It’s incredible the number of people that come in with boxes and boxes of documents. And they just have done all of the research themselves and they go back and trace their family tree. (OC) They’re hiring lawyers and then going out there and proving that hey look, under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo back in 1848, this belonged to my ancestors, and that it was taken away. The treaty wasn’t honored. Why was the treaty not honored?
NARRATION
Land grant descendants are not only filing suits against the federal government but also against the state, private owners, and public foundations. At stake is not just land, but lucrative royalties from oil, gas, and mineral rights.
RAMON GARCIA OC
We’re talking about, you know, millions of dollars…many millions of dollars. I mean you know, this area is very rich in natural gas and other minerals. Any courthouses down here in South Texas you’re going to see those land fights occurring today.
PEARL BALLI OC
It’s the principal…what was done to our ancestors. The story needs to come out.
NARRATION
The Balli sisters trace their roots to the brother of Father Balli , a Spanish priest who was given one of the largest land grants in south Texas. The Ballis are currently in a legal battle to reclaim this land, a 128 mile stretch called Padre Island, which they say was stolen. For over a hundred years, title to this land has been in dispute. The Balli sisters remember that even as children, lawyers were still trying to pressure their family to give up their rights to the land.
EMMA BALLI OC
I saw people going in and out of my house with blue and black suits with documents and we'll meet you in the third floor of the Harding hotel. And sign here, sign there, sign everywhere, documents all the time--making the family believe that they were going to get money out of this. Not ever mentioning that they were selling their rights, their lands away. Not ever, ever mentioning this to them. You know, always making the family believe something else.
NARRATION
Today, South Padre Island is a popular tourist destination that generates millions of dollars. The beachfront is covered with condos, luxury hotels, motels, and restaurants.
Only a few miles north of South Padre Island’s city center, the buildings disappear and the road comes to an end. This land is worth tens of millions of dollars. But land developers take the Balli's claim so seriously that they will not develop the land until the question of ownership is resolved.
PEARL BALLI OC
I knew how much it meant to grandpa. Because he lived there. We have his signature of deeds. It happened to my grandfather. I knew how much it meant to my dad. His last words that he breathed were, "Prometame que no me van a soltar a la isla."
[SUBTITLES]
Promise me that you won't stop fighting for the island.
EMMA BALLI OC
It hasn’t been easy but a promise is a promise, especially to my dad.
PEARL BALLI VO
But we are fighters and (OC) when that court tells us there's nothing there, maybe then, the curtain comes down—but we know that’s not going to happen.
RAMON GARCIA OC
When you come right down to it. Bottom line is that people were deprived of their property. Now the issue is who’s going to compensate them for it. And you know there's certainly, there's a lot of issues out there that need to come to a head and we’ve got to have some finality and I think that’s where its headed. Sooner or later our courts are just going to say, "We have to put an end to this."
YOLANDA ZARATE OC
This was given by the Mexican government. It clearly states that it is a land grant given to Pilar Zarate. Under the Spanish laws, that land was supposed to be his and his descendants and not taken away. The Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of 1848 was to respect those rights. It did not.
GALEN GREASER OC
They’re looking for something that confirms their notion or suspicion that they, as descendants of these original grantees, may, some how have the right to the proceeds of the land today.
NARRATION
At the Texas Land Office, Galen Greaser archives original Spanish and Mexican land grants and helps people connect to their past.
GALEN GREASER OC
In the main, people come in and want to see the actual, physical document. They just want to come in and sometimes just feel the, the emotion of having in their hands a document that might have been signed by one of their ancestors or seeing some physical proof or evidence that one of their ancestors actually obtained one of these original land grants.
NARRATION
Here on the border, Mexican-Americans dream to reclaim land that was once their ancestors, and bring to a close the painful chapter in a history that has forgotten them.
CAYETANO BARRERA OC
This land means a lot to me. I think this is something that, that I will always identify with it. And I think my children will always identify with it. And I think that we need to keep this heritage alive. It’s a very rich heritage down here that spans many hundreds of years…and I think we need to keep it alive and it is being kept alive.
ROLANDO HINOJOSA-SMITH VO
They speak of it as if it were yesterday. (OC) It’s very fresh on their minds. They’re not neurotic about it, but they don’t wish to forget it. This is not say that they live in the past. They just don’t want to forget the past. They don’t want it buried. It is something that they hold near and dear and its very important. It also gives them this great sense of identity that they’ve not lost. (VO) And I don’t see how it can be lost. It’s, it's an amazing thing.
AMINTA ZARATE OC
I’m 80 years old but I’m not going to give up. I’m going to try to see if we can get justice for what they have done to us, which is something that everybody, all the members and the older people that come to the meetings--they say hasta cuando? hasta cuando? When are we going to get paid? It’s very sad, you know. My husband died with the intention with the same saying... Before he died, one day, he told me said to me, "Vieja, continue fighting for the land grants, because you’re going to win."
ROLANDO HINOJOSA-SMITH OC
There has not been closure enough to satisfy them. The land is very important. But it’s also a, a means of recognition of what it was that happened during those times. And this has to be cleared up.
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