“Gathering Together We Decide” Book Launch at UTRGV in Edinburg, Texas

Date: Monday, December 8, 2025

Time: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., CST

Place: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Ballroom, 1201 W University Dr, Edinburg, TX

Celebrate the publication of Gathering Together, We Decide: Archives of Dispossession, Resistance, and Memory in Ndé Homelands edited by Margo Tamez, Cynthia Bejarano, and Jeffrey P. Shepherd. The book launch event at the UTRGV Ballroom includes the screening of the domentary El Muro, a panel of speakers, book giveaways, and book signings. El Muro documents the struggle of Dr. Eloisa G. Tamez against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that implemented eminent domain to seize a portion of her own Lipan Apache ancestral land in El Calaboz Rancheria, Texas. Margo Tamez (Ndé) is an associate professor of Indigenous studies in the Community, Culture, and Global Studies Department, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and affiliated in the MFA Creative Writing (Poetry) Program, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, at the University of British Columbia in the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan People. Cynthia Bejarano is a regents professor and College of Arts and Sciences Stan Fulton Endowed Chair at New Mexico State University. Jeffrey P. Shepherd is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Event schedule:

Doors open at 10:45 a.m.
Documentary El Muro 11 a.m.
Panel Speakers 12 p.m.
Book Giveaways & Signings 1:45 p.m.

The celebration is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by Emilio Institute for Indigenous Responsibility, Rights & Research,
UTRGV Department of Criminal Justice and the University of Arizona Press.

About the book:

In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security began condemnation proceedings on the property of Dr. Eloisa Tamez, a Lipan Apache (Ndé) professor, veteran, and title holder to land in South Texas deeded to her ancestors under the colonial occupation and rule of King Charles III of Spain in 1761, during a time when Indigenous lands were largely taken and exploited by Spanish colonizers. Crown grants of lands to Indigenous peoples afforded them the opportunity to reclaim Indigenous title and control. The federal government wanted Tamez’s land to build a portion of the “border wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border. She refused. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security sued her, but she countersued based on Aboriginal land rights, Indigenous inherent rights, the land grant from Spain, and human rights. This standoff continued for years, until the U.S. government forced Tamez to forfeit land for the wall.

In response, Dr. Eloisa Tamez and her daughter, Dr. Margo Tamez, organized a gathering of Lipan tribal members, activists, lawyers, and allies to meet in El Calaboz, South Texas. This gathering was a response to the appropriation of the Tamez family land, but it also provided an international platform to dispute the militarization of Indigenous territory throughout the U.S.-Mexico bordered lands. The gathering and years of ensuing resistance and activism produced an archive of scholarly analyses, testimonios, artwork, legal briefs, poetry, and other cultural productions.