The Spanish King and his Mexican representatives, in what is now the U.S. Southwest, parceled out large quantities of land to individual settlers of Spanish or Indian heritage and communities in what was then Mexico, in order to promote settlement of certain areas. Under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States was obligated to respect all prior property rights in New Mexico.
The Court of Private Land Claims was established in 1891. It consisted of five judges empowered to determine the validity of land titles from Spain and Mexico held by descendants of the original grantees. Until 1904, the Court of Private Land Claims heard 301 petitions regarding 34,653,340 acres of land. Ultimately, only 75 petitions were approved, guaranteeing rights of ownership to over 1,934,986 acres of land to claimants.
This collection consists of subsequent court cases regarding the Caja del Rio grant. The land involved in this case was originally granted to Nicolas Ortiz II, Niño Ladrón de Guevara (also written Guebara), born in Mexico to Nicolas Ortiz I, who joined colonists in Zacatecas in 1693 and served as aid to Don Diego de Vargas, Governor of New Mexico. While many grantees received land from viceroys and representatives of the King, Nicolas Ortiz II received this land by authority of the King, himself. The Caja del Rio grant consisting of 66,848.783 acres northwest of Santa Fe in Santa Fe County was ultimately confirmed and approved by the Court of Private Land Claims as property of claimant Felipe Delgado. Though he is not referenced in the testimonies in this collection, the genealogies presented in the testimonies confirm that Felipe Delgado is second cousin to the plaintiff (Aniceto Abeytia), and that both are great-grandsons of the original grantee.
From the guide to the Caja del Rio Grant Testimony, 1887-1914 (bulk 1904-1914), (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)
