People's Constitutional Party

Last updated
People's Constitutional Party
Leader Pedro Arechuleta
Moises Morales
Founder Supporters of Reies Tijerina
Founded 1968 (1968)
Dissolved 1971 (1971)
Membership (1970) 169
Ideology Chicano nationalism
Political position Left-wing

The People's Constitutional Party was a political party active in the U.S. state of New Mexico during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

A political party is an organized group of people, often with common views, who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. The party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the collective good or furthering their supporters' interests.

New Mexico State of the United States of America

New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States of America; its capital and cultural center is Santa Fe, which was founded in 1610 as capital of Nuevo México, while its largest city is Albuquerque with its accompanying metropolitan area. It is one of the Mountain States and shares the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona; its other neighboring states are Oklahoma to the northeast, Texas to the east-southeast, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua to the south and Sonora to the southwest. With a population around two million, New Mexico is the 36th state by population. With a total area of 121,592 sq mi (314,920 km2), it is the fifth-largest and sixth-least densely populated of the 50 states. Due to their geographic locations, northern and eastern New Mexico exhibit a colder, alpine climate, while western and southern New Mexico exhibit a warmer, arid climate.

Contents

History

The party was formed in 1968 by supporters of Reies Tijerina and his Alianza Federal de Mercedes, who was active in the Chicano Movement and advocated for land grants in New Mexico to be restored to descendants of their original Spanish and Mexican owners. [1] The party, which was led by Pedro Arechuleta and Moises Morales, called for "bilingual education, civilian police review boards, and an increase in welfare payments." [1] Due to his status as a convicted felon, Tijerina was disqualified as a gubernatorial candidate in the 1968 election and was replaced by Jose Maestes. [2] The party ran several candidates in the 1968 and 1970 elections, but none were successful, or even received more than 2% of the vote, [3] and it dissolved shortly afterward, largely due to Tijerina's imprisonment a year prior. [1] [4] In May 1970, the People's Constitutional Party had 169 registered members. [5]

Reies Tijerina American activist

Reies Lopez Tijerina, an activist who led a struggle in the 1960s and 1970s to restore New Mexican land grants to the descendants of their Spanish colonial and Mexican owners.2 As a vocal spokesman for the rights of Hispanics and Mexican Americans, he became a major figure of the early Chicano Movement and founded the Alianza Federal de Mercedes. As an activist, he worked in community education and organization, media relations, and land reclamations. He became famous and infamous internationally for his 1967 armed raid on the Tierra Amarilla courthouse.

Alianza Federal de Mercedes, which in English translates to Federal Land Grant Alliance, was a group led by Reies Tijerina based in New Mexico in the 1960s that fought for the land rights of Chicano New Mexicans.

Chicano Movement movement with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment

The Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano civil rights movement or El Movimiento, was a civil rights movement extending the Mexican-American civil rights movement of the 1960s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment. Similar to the Black Power movement, scholars have also written about the repression and police brutality experienced by members of this movement which some connect to larger government-organized activity such as COINTELPRO.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 David Correia (1 March 2013). Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in Northern New Mexico. University of Georgia Press. p. 151. ISBN   978-0-8203-4502-4.
  2. ↑ "NM Governor 1968". OurCampaigns. January 21, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  3. ↑ "People's Constitutional Party". Our Campaigns. February 12, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  4. ↑ Feather, Bill (November 3, 1968). "New Mexico's Fast-Paced Campaigns Drawing to Close at Polls Tuesday". The Santa Fe New Mexican . Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  5. ↑ People's Constitutional Party v. Evans(Supreme Court of New MexicoDecember 6, 1970). Text
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