The U.S. War with Mexico (1846–48) ended with the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This, together with the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, would set the political boundaries of America’s Southwest as known to us today. When the United States and Mexico met again to exchange their ratified treaties, the delegates negotiated another agreement that the American government would recognize the legitimacy of land grants as they had been recognized under Mexican law. The United States would later renounce these terms, arguing that the U.S. delegation had overstepped its authority and therefore the new terms would not be recognized. As a result, wealthy whites began forcefully obtaining property and dislocating Mexican American residents across the region. Together with the investment of railroads and mining industries, by 1912 the region was soon transformed from a primarily rural Mexican culture to a modern American culture. In the early 1960s, Reies López Tijerina (1926–2015), through his organization La Alianza, sought to educate and inform heirs of Spanish- land grants of their rights under the 1848 Treaty. When La Alianza attempted to regroup in 1967, several members were arrested, and a portion of the group armed themselves and took the local courthouse. The courthouse raid brought La Alianza and its pursuit of land recognition into the national conversation. Though La Alianza thought the Johnson-era War on Poverty would be a significant step forward, by 1968 it was clear that the promises from Washington were not going to be fulfilled. With the national spotlight on Tijerina, he was elected to lead the Chicano contingent of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Poor People’s March on Washington. The Poor People’s March prioritized political help for the domestic poor, including jobs, housing, and education, over the war in Vietnam. However, Tijerina and perhaps Dr. King had more in mind. The day after Dr. King was assassinated, Tijerina went on the radio in Berkeley, California, to address the nation in this interview conducted by Elsa Knight Thompson for radio station KPFA.