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Just as I was about to send this to friends of mine, one a lawyer, one a big
history buff, and all three of whom have been involved in writing
medievalish/Renaissancish ceremonies with me, I realized it was an unschooling story and
so decided to offload it on you folks as well!

That other e-mail, from here down:
========================================

-=-. . . in order to own property under the Spanish and Mexican land grant
system, you had to physically step on the land, run your fingers through the
soil, and make a public commitment to live on it, cultivate it, and, if
necessary, defend it with your life.
-=-


Jeff (and to Jon by copy), this is from an article on the ceremony for
accepting a land grant:

http://www.nmgs.org/artlandgrnts.htm

It's in an article by a historian named Robert Torrez. Marty and I heard
him yesterday, at El Rancho de las Golandrinas, talking about the history of
justice in New Mexico. It was fun. He told stories of crime involving women
(as perpetrators or catalysts), one good one from each century from 18th, and a
great story about a botched hanging in Las Vegas, and I was wishing you and
Balthazar had been there. You'd've enjoyed it.

But just putzing around today to see what he might have published, I found
this. This stuff could be worked into a ceremony for a landed baron or
something, maybe, sometime. It's not the same, I know, but still...

I'm copying Wendy too.
How disorganized of me to add people as I go along. <g>
I'm glad Marty's so interested in New Mexico history. Good excuse for me to
help him trivia, and darned if some of it doesn't stick to me.

Sandra