Developing a Multi-Dimensional Model of Hispano Attachment to and Loss of Land

Abstract

One underpinning of ties between family and culture among the Hispanos of Northern New Mexico is land. Among Hispanos land has historically symbolized a protective environment fostering survival, the development of extended family systems, a land-based culture, and a variety of land practices including spiritual/religious rituals. This, however, began to change with the initial loss of Hispano land holdings, a consequence of the annexation of New Mexico into the American Union and the disregard by the American government of Hispano landholder rights upheld in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848. A grounded theory dissertation completed in 2005 addressed Northern New Mexican Hispano perspectives of attachment to and loss of land. The core concepts that emerged from the findings were, after a post-dissertation evaluation, found to parallel John Bowlby's still relevant, intertwining inner and outer rings of attachment and Setha Low's linkages between individual and place. Bowlby's ethologically based protective outer ring is a conceptual representation of the environment. The inner ring represents an organism's experience of safety and survival within the environment. Both rings intertwine as one's physiological state impacts one's view of the environment, with this view influencing one's physiological state. Setha Low pinpointed six specific types of linkages that form the basis of an interactional relationship between individuals and place. The grounded theory investigation narrative responses provided material that contributed to the development of a Multi-Dimensional Model of Hispano Attachment to and Loss of Land within the context of Northern New Mexico guided by the framework of Bowlby's and Low's models. While at this present time the model is applicable only to the respondents of the grounded theory investigation, it nevertheless contributes to a greater understanding of the process of psychological attachment and loss of land and its emotional consequences as perceived and conceived by Hispano residents in Northern New Mexico. Such psychologically based findings suggest applicability to mental health approaches for Hispanos in Northern New Mexico. Recommended are further studies with larger and more varied Hispano samples that could make this model generalizable to other Hispano or Latino populations residing in the area of the United States that was at one time a part of the Northern Mexican territories absorbed into the American Union as described in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The development of this model contributes to the growing work on place psychology, to the Chicano/Hispano psychology literature, and to literature on cultural trauma.