Reies Lopez Tijerina's “the land grant question”: Creating history through metaphors

Well versed in the history of Mexican, Spanish, and United States land grants, Chicano activist Reies Lopez Tijerina conducted a rhetorical campaign centered in New Mexico in the 1960s. This study analyzes Tijerina's speech, “The Land Grant Question,” presented on November 26, 1967, at the University of Colorado, as an example of interethnic communication and for its use of metaphors in public discourse to create a cultural memory. This examination focuses on the speech's approach to historical relations between Chicano and Anglo culture, and its stylistic aspects.

Key terms:

• Chicano
• Chicano movement
• cultural memory
• interethnic communication
• jeremiad
• metaphor
• public discourse