Sowing Discontent: The 1921 Alien Land Act in New Mexico

In 1921 New Mexicans approved a constitutional amendment that prohibited “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning land in the state. Reflecting the post-World War I nationalistic fervor and its racialization of “Americanism,” the amendment targeted the state’s tiny Japanese population, partly under pressure from institutions like the Farm Bureau, the American Legion, and even the Ku Klux Klan. While some Hispanos (or Nuevomexicanos) benefited by claiming an exclusionary “Spanish American” identity, others had worked alongside and intermarried with Japanese immigrants. Yet, although some predominantly Nuevomexicano counties rejected the amendment, many Nuevomexicanos joined with their Anglo neighbors to enact this discriminatory policy, ostensibly on the grounds of protecting the state from a huge influx of foreign farmers who would displace the state’s real citizens. The discriminatory language remained in the constitution until 2006.