Conquests and Historical Identities in California, 1769-1936 - Tapa dura

Spanning the period between Spanish colonization and the early 20th century, this study examines the histories of Spanish and American conquests, and of ethnicity, race and community in southern California. It draws on a diverse body of source materials (mission and court archives, oral histories, Spanish language plays, census and tax records) to build a picture of rural society and social change. A borderlands and Chicano history, the book provides a study of events that took place in and around San Juan Capistrano and Santa Ana in present-day Orange County. It provides a sense of how and why the past acquires meaning in the lives that make up the historical identities it discusses. The voices of Juaneno and Luiseno Indians, Californios and Mexicans are heard along the shifting faultlines of economic, social and political change. This multiethnic history of California and of the West makes clear that issues of multiculturalism and ethnicity are not recent manifestations in California - they have characterized social and cultural relationships there since the late 18th century.

Lisbeth Haas is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz.