Las Gorras Blancas (Spanish for "The White Caps") was an clandestine organization active in New Mexico Territory in the late 1880s and early 1890s.

The success of Las Gorras Blancas resulted in the removal of most fences from ranches and increased access to the common lands by the Hispanic residents.

This success was temporary as by the mid-1890s the organization had ceased to be and the ranchers, railroads, lawyers, and speculators had begun to control most of the land once again.

The Spanish and Mexican governments of New Mexico made hundreds of grants of land totaling millions of acres to groups and individuals as inducements to create or expand settlement of the border regions of the colony.

[2] In 1835, the Mexican government created the Las Vegas Grant of 431,654 acres (174,684 ha) (674 sqmi) in what became San Miguel County, New Mexico.

[4] The rapid growth in the largely-Hispanic population in the grant area was due to its proximity to the Santa Fe Trail, the quality of its grazing land on the Great Plains, and the timber and water in its highlands.

The establishment of Fort Union nearby in 1851 increased the security of the fledging community and provided employment for residents and a market for Las Vegas products.

'"[5] The coming of the railroad in 1879 expanded a market for ranch land and stimulated the livestock industry, especially of sheep for wool.

A ranch manager later said of the Anglo ranchers, "The range men of those times treated the entire Spanish American people as if they had no rights at all; refused to have any social relations with them...killed them, dispossessed them of their lands; scattered their sheep, and drove off their cattle.

Both large ranchers and small homesteaders built homes, barns, and fenced grant land with barbed-wire, ignoring the claims of Hispanic residents.

Although an arbitrator found in favor of the Hispanics, the judge failed to act on the case while Anglo settlement continued to increase.

In June, they burned the house down of J.B. Snouffer in Fulton, a railroad station 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Las Vegas.

In August they destroyed fences of a ranch owned by Sheriff Lorenzo Lopez only 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Las Vegas.

He was in his mid to late fifties, a former soldier for the Union Army during the American Civil War, an organizer for the Knights of Labor, and an orator.

On November 1, 1889 at midnight, 63 armed horsemen mounted men demonstrated in front of the courthouse, the jail, and the home of the District Attorney.

They rode in opposition to the Santa Fe Railroad and low wages and many of them were believed to belong to the Gorras Blancas.

[14] The success of the Gorras Blancas in mobilizing public opinion against land-grabbers, railroads, and the Santa Fe Ring in San Miguel County let to the formation of a political party, El Partido del Pueblo Unido (United People's Party), which enjoyed electoral success in 1890 and 1892, winning all the electoral offices in the country.

The U.S. government abolished the corrupt Surveyor General system and created a new institution, the Court of Private Land Claims in 1891.

With his return to San Miguel country, officials feared a resurgence of the Gorras Blancas but Herrera was shot and killed by a deputy sheriff in front of the courthouse in Las Vegas.

If the fact that we are law abiding citizens is questioned, come out to our homes and see the hunger and desolation we are suffering; and "this" is the result of the deceitful and corrupt methods of "bossism."