This is a complicated story but it highlights Mora’s early history. It was a time before the 1835 Mora Land Grant was authorized by Governor Albino Perez in September 1835. The Land Grant was huge, 800,000 acres and an area equal to 1,250 square miles. The Grant was given to 76 Vecinos.
Vecinos came from Penasco and Picuris Pueblo. In the late 1700s there were disputes about land and water between the Pueblo and their Spanish Vecinos.. The Spanish settlers and Genizarios were then given permission to settle the Mora Valley. Settlers were called Vecinos simply because they were the Picuris Pueblo’s neighbors.
The official reason the Mexican Governor gave for the land grant was to act as a buffer zone. A buffer zone that sharpened the people of Mora Valley like a fine blade.
And before the Land Grant a fortunate occurrence happened that changed New Mexico forever. In 1821 in Franklin Missouri was William Becknell, a trader, businessman and respected resident, however, he had recently been arrested for not paying his bills. In 1819 a panic over paper money had everyone rejecting paper money. It was becoming worthless. Becknell was jailed and released on a $400 bond. Desperate to avoid having all his possessions, land, home and business inventory seized by the local sheriff and him to debtor’s prison he came up with a plan.
His plan was to head west to trade with Indians so he put an ad in the newspaper and signed up 5 men. Their intent was to hunt wild stock and horses in the Indian Territories. Becknell took about $300 worth of cloth like calico, cotton prints, small iron tools, knives, needles, scissors, buttons, thread, ribbons and small brass ornaments. He took mirrors, small utensils, and minor household trinkets. He also carried traps, ammunition, firearms and camp gear. Remember $300 could buy a lot in those times. He and his companions came up with the initial money.
If Becknell had come one year earlier he would have been arrested and his goods confiscated, but in 1821 the people of New Mexico became Mexican, as a result of the Mexican Revolution. While on patrol a Mexican military patrol encountered Becknell and was met warmly by Captain Pedro Gallego and escorted to Santa Fe.
Mexican Governor Facundo Melgares, ironically the same Spanish Governor who had Zebulon Pike arrested and sent to Chihuahua as a prisoner, was overjoyed to see what Becknell had brought. For years people in New Mexico were the end of the line commercially. 1500 miles from Mexico City and forgotten during the Revolution, Santa Fe was desperate for goods. The bolts of cloth Becknell bought in Missouri for 20 cents sold for $2. All in all his $300 investment netted a gross profit of $6000. When Becknell returned to Franklin he reportedly slit a bag of coins that spilled onto the street. The Mexican silver pieces of eight were the perfect backing for paper money. He paid his bills and became a rich man. He started the Santa Fe Trail.
In 1835 the first families started settling Mora Valley. In 1837 the Chimayo Revolt over taxes and lack of representation occurred. Mexican President Santa Anna had taken local power away from New Mexicans and given it to a central power base in Mexico City.
Albino Perez,(the same who authorized the Mora Land Grant) appointed Governor, was an outsider and hated. Rebels demanded self governance, a stop to unfair taxes and a protection of traditional customs. Perez was attacked and killed and New Mexico’s first Indigenous Governor was appointed.
Jose Gonzalez, a Genizario.
Genizarios were natives basically without a tribe since they were assimilated by Spanish settlers and treated as Spanish/Mexican citizens. Gonzales was a skilled buffalo hunter, however, his office didn’t last long before he was killed by Mexican Forces and southerner Manuel Armijo reclaimed New Mexico.
The same Santa Anna who caused the Chimayo Rebellion also triggered Texas’s bid to become a free nation. Texas declared its independence from Mexico on March 2,1836, officially becoming the Republic of Texas.