“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

merchant, prominent colorado and member of Salto’s JEA. Guarch addressed claims to
public lands by a local merchant company, Falcon, Fructuoso, Paiva y Cia. According to
Guarch, his fellow JEA members had improperly concluded that the lands in question
belonged to Gabriela Pareja de Raffo, the wife of the now-deceased José Raffo. Raffo
originally received the tract through a grant from Salto’s JEA in 1864. Guarch alleged that
the 1864 grant, however, suffered from several procedural irregularities. These rendered it
invalid. Guarch noted that because of these prior infirmities, the JEA now had to bid the
land out properly. The Falcon group should be free to purchase it. 3
Guarch commented that he had no real opposition to Raffo. Rather he had to act in
order to “save the honor and dignity of the junta [that is] compromised in this matter” as
well as “my own is particular.” He continued: “No authority can nor must respect, nor
render valid, anything that is not based upon the law.” Guarch then set out the reasons for
why the 1864 grant was illegal. He claimed that Raffo possessed an affirmative duty to
“subdivide the land in question into solares, enclose them, and then settle them.” Because
Raffo failed to do so, the result was a “concentration of donations” in the hands of a single
recipient. Guarch alleged that this was improper. Faced with this reality, Guarch concluded
that accepting Raffo’s legal titles would be akin to “recognizing a property that she does not
possess and would amount to defrauding the junta of its own interests; it is a misstep that
gives rise to favoritism and which must disappear.” 4
Despite Guarch’s exhortations to the JEA, the other members had concluded that
Raffo did possess a valid title. With his position rejected by local officials, Guarch then
made his disagreement public by publishing the article. Guarch’s actions, and particularly his
3 Ibid., 1.
4 Ibid., 1-2.
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