Environmental for Food Justice

Mexican border colonia. Photo courtesy of Texas A&M University . Moderator’s Note: In this three-part series, I present a detailed report on a conflict brewing in Costilla County between the heirs and successors of the Colorado portion of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant, who are standing with their county government, and the property rights demands accompanying the arrival of mostly working-class and dispossessed white settlers who refuse to abide by county land use and zoning regulations that we fought hard for in the 1990s because we wanted to protect our land and water and the integrity of acequia culture. Many of the newcomers appear to be working with groups, or at least embrace the ideology, of the white ‘sovereign citizens’ movement, which the FBI considers the most serious domestic terrorist threat to the U.S. Part I provides the historical background on colonias, defined as subdivisions lacking access to water, electricity, and other utilities. I note that all the reporti...