Making property in the Taos valleys

This article emphasises that society makes property and that when one society is displaced by another it often is the case that existing property arrangements are recast to favor the newcomers and disadvantage the former inhabitants. With this in mind, the paper explores the displacement process by examining the case of Hispanos in northern New Mexico and their displacement with the takeover of the U.S. government beginning in 1846.The paper finds that:a major disruption in the political economy of northern New Mexico occurred under U.S. governance. This included the important shifts in ownership and access to lands that had been included in earlier Spanish and Mexican land grantsthe loss of these natural assets is associated with the persistent poverty that characterizes this region up to the presentthe property-making processes initiated by American society have shaped and continue to shape the forms of displacement, poverty and development that characterize this region