The heart of Chicano history: Reies Lopez Tijerina as a memory entrepreneur.

The essay re-examines the role of Reies Lopez Tijerina, a New Mexican land-grant leader and founder of the Alianza Federal de Mercedes, whose members are best known for their armed takeover of the Rio Arriba Courthouse in 1967. This essay argues, however, that Tijerina's greatest significance was as a “memory entrepreneur,” that is, someone who popularizes a long-suppressed version of the past, in this case, the history of land loss among Spanish-speaking New Mexicans. Aliancistas put their version of the past on display in 1966 when they occupied the Carson National Forest's Echo Amphitheater campground on the basis of long-forgotten land claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]