Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 9-29-2025
Abstract
Mutual protection societies proliferated in the American Southwest during a period of rapid social change, 1870-1930, coincident with significant changes in the region’s political economy and increased competition for land and water resources. To resist encroachment and protect their natural resources, hispano communities in Colorado and New Mexico organized mutual benefit and protective associations known as mutualistas, with a large number concentrated in the San Luis Valley of Colorado as well as in many rural counties of northcentral New Mexico. The Costilla Valley of New Mexico is a prototypical hispano settlement initially established as part of the expansive Sangre de Cristo Land Grant straddling the Colorado-New Mexico border. Resistance to the infamous land grabs emerged by way of people’s mutualist associations, one as a land and water defensive organization and the other as a mutual aid and benefit society. Here we describe each of the cases to compare and contrast their resistance strategies for cultural identity and self-preservation.
Recommended Citation
Rivera, José A. Ph.D. "Land Struggles, Resistance, and Mutual Protection Along the Colorado-New Mexico Border: The Sacred Right of Self-Preservation." (2025). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arch_fsp/19
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