By KRWG News
Santa Fe, New Mexico – SANTA FE, N.M. (KRWG) Reies Lopez Tijerina, an icon of the Chicano Movement, is slated to make a rare appearance.
The 85-year-old ailing land grant activist is scheduled Thursday to speak at the New Mexico Capitol Rotunda at an event honoring the anniversary of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signing.
Tijerina was the leader of a land grant rights group and said the U.S. government stole millions of acres from Latinos after the Mexican-American War in violation of the treaty.
In 1967, Tijerina and a band of armed followers raided a Rio Arriba County courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, N.M. to attempt a citizen's arrest of then-District Attorney Alfonso Sanchez. The raiders shot and wounded a state police officer and jailer, beat a deputy and took a sheriff and reporter hostage. The hostages later escaped.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. KRWG