During this period Tineo spent time working with the Brown Berets, MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) and other community activist groups, and he is still considered one of the most influential leaders of the Chicano Mural Movement in Arizona.
Continuing this rise towards aristocratic prominence, Villena soon received titles as count of Cangas and Tineo – offered to him by his cousin, King Henry III of Castile.
He starts to appear in royal charters in 1176, and served as the alférez of King Alfonso IX in 1185 and in the following year, in which he was also appointed tenant-in-chief of Mansilla and other villages and regions that had been governed by his relatives count Suero Vermúdez and Pedro Afonso, including Tineo and Babia, Gozón, and Cabezón.