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3 Harv. Latino L. Rev. 115 (1999)
This Land Belongs to Me: Chicanas, Land Grant Adjudication, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

handle is hein.journals/hllr3 and id is 119 raw text is: This Land Belongs to Me:* Chicanas, Land Grant Adjudication, and The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Guadalupe T. Luna** This article examines the litigation experiences of women of Mexican descent who defended their property interests following the U.S. invasion and conquest of the former Mexican provinces.' The purpose of this article is to illuminate the various parallels between the political and legal methods used to strip Mexican women of their land after the war, and the current political and legal rhetoric bearing detrimental consequences for Chicanas2 today. The ultimate goal of this piece is to introduce Chicanas into the legal discourse, with the hope of engendering further discussion toward ending their continued invisibility and subordination under the law. Part I develops a contextual framework. It links the struggles of the Mexicana of the past to maintain control over her property with the struggle of today's * People v. Avila, No. 6 Crim. (Super. Ct. Orange County, October 15, 1889), cited in LISBETH HAAS, CONQUESTS AND HISTORICAL IDENTITIES IN CALFORNIA, 1769-1936, at 1 (1995). ' Associate Professor of Law, Northern Illinois University; B.A., University of Minnesota; J.D., University of Minnesota. For their much appreciated comments and immeasurable assistance, I thank Dennis Nodin Valdds and Kevin Johnson. This project derives from a series of my investigations on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and from a presentation at the second LatCrit Conference, held in San Antonio, Texas, in 1997. 1The invasion and ultimate conquest of the former Mexican territories began in large part in California in 1846, For a case law account, see United States v. Pico, 19 F. Cas. 595, 596 (D. Cal. 1857) (No. 11, 130). 2 For the purposes of this article, the term Chicana refers to women of Mexican birth or descent living in the United States after the conquest. Women living in Mexico before the conquest are referenced as Mexicanas.

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