Terra Patre Farm in Belen, NM, consisting of about twenty acres, is all that remains of the original two
hundred acre farm, part of the two hundred thousand acre Belen Land Grant of 1742.  Donald A. Chavez
y Gilbert is a descendent of, among others, Belen Land Grant founder, Diego de Torres. The owner of
the farm the year the Mexican American War ended (1848), and owner at the time the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed soon after, was his great-great-great grandfather, Juan Nepucemo
Chavez. He married Telesfora Baca in 1848. Both their names still appear on the Middle Rio Grande
Maps (102-103) for Terra Patre farm and surrounding area. The farm has piece by piece been passed
down from one family member or another to the other through the generations.

Chavez y Gilbert runs the farm in the tradition of his ancestors and has taken special steps to make it
available to the community and local schools as a teaching farm. Like his ancestors, he has had to strive
to preserve what remains of this farm and protect it from government intrusion, and confiscatory taxes
and ordinances. The long-term plan is to place this farm in a perpetual trust as a Spanish Colonial
Heritage Park to be dedicated to teaching the children and grandchildren of New Mexico for many
generations how the Old West began and how the first cowboys and ranchers lived.
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Belen, New Mexico
& Southern Colorado
Terra Patre Farms