"What Does Incest Have to Do with the Land Grants?": Oral History, Archival Research, and Decolonial Feminism Provide the Answer

Abstract: This article explores how I answered the question contained in the article's title, "What Does Incest Have to Do with the Land Grants?" My 2019 book, The King of Adobe: Reies López Tijerina, Lost Prophet of the Chicano Movement, answered that question by offering two intertwined theses, the first highlighting Tijerina's political accomplishments, the second arguing that those accomplishments rested upon the exploitation, sometimes brutal, of family members, especially women. Set within the context of current debates within feminist oral history, this article explains how I laced together a decolonial feminist approach with Western positivist methods. It traces the emotional toll, ethical dilemmas, and ultimate research benefit that conducting inter views with Tijerina's first ex-wife and his eldest daughter, both of whom shared accounts of abuse at Tijerina's hands, as well as with Tijerina himself, generated.