Latin American Studies ETDs

Publication Date

12-14-2002

Abstract

This thesis explores the life and worldview of Reies López Tijerina, who was most famous for his 1967 attack on a small courthouse in Rio Arriba, New Mexico. Because the author has given equal importance to context, as opposed to protagonist, the world view and history of the Penitentes of northern New Mexico "as context" was also explored. The reader will also find a de-emphasis on the political history of the times and place, especially with regards to the "raid" of 1967, in favor of a analytical model that focuses on the religious aspects of the protagonist to show how those aspects motivated the various historical events surrounding Tijerina' s life and career.

The analysis herein shows an inherent predisposition on the part of northern New Mexicans to the religio-political rhetoric of Reies López Tijerina, who is argued in this essay to fit the description of a numinous messianic figure. The main conclusion that emerges from this study is one that poses the rhetorical ideation of "world destruction" as a concept and political agenda that played a catalytic role in bringing to the surface frustrations that were extant among the people of New Mexico over the disintegrating state of their culture and worldview due to the historical dispossession of their lands protected under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848. It was the ideation of world destruction that brought relief to certain Hispanos of New Mexico and the larger Hispano populace, and linked Tijerina to the Penitente north. The two part composition of this thesis shows that link.

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Latin American Studies

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Latin American Studies

First Committee Member (Chair)

Linda B. Hall

Second Committee Member

Illegible

Third Committee Member

Illegible

Fourth Committee Member

Bárbara O. Reyes

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