Imperial (190 page)

Relative rankings of Imperial County “in regard to various unpleasant things”—California county health status profiles (2001), selected tables as indicated.

“The Harvest Gypsies”: “Families who had lived for many years. . .”—
The Grapes of Wrath
, p. 1025.

12 . The Gardens of Paradise (2007)

Epigraph: “Motivations, even if ideological . . .”—Hassig, p. 263.

PART TWO

OUTLINES

13 . When Bread Was Light (1768 -1848)

Epigraph: “For years they had wandered alone . . .”—Grey, p. 11.

Here and in subsequent chapters, remarks on the distribution of cacti are based on Benson, pp. 84 et seq.

Mr. Samuel T. Black: Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 1.

Acreage of the Mexicali Valley—This was surprisingly hard to come by. Yolanda Sánchez Ogás told me that “the Mexicali Valley contains almost four hundred thousand hectares” (June 2003), so I converted this approximation to acres and hoped for the best: 1 hectare = 2.47 acres.

Lieutenant W. H. Emory (1846): The Imperial Valley “is chiefly covered with floating sand . . .”—Quoted in Howe and Hall, p. 16.

California: “Somewhere on the way from Mexico to India” and “vaguely fixed by such bounds as Asia . . .”—Bancroft, vol. XVIII, p. iii.

Father Baegert on the Baja: “It was altogether one of the most miserable countries in the world . . .”—Quoted in Samuel T. Black, vol. 1, p. 15.

The Indian metaphors: Baegert, quoted in Black, vol. 1, p. 22.

General Sherman on the Baja: “A miserable, wretched, dried-up peninsula.”—Sherman, p. 62.

The 1564 map which depicts “the Colorado, largest river in the world . . .”—California Blue Book (1909), p. 717. “Their duties were to act as body guards . . .”—Baegert, quoted in Black, vol. 1, p. 22.

Footnote: Cruelties to Indians in Baja—Bull, p. 53.

Anecdote by Acting Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga—Op. cit., p. 31 (26 July).

“When they gave us the holy gospel . . .”—León-Portilla and Shorris, p. 358 (letter of the Cabildo of Huejozingo to the King [of Spain], 1560).

A visitor to Alta California in 1826: “If any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to conversion . . .”—Elliott,
History of Tulare County
, p. 27. The visitor was Captain Beechey, on whose eponymous island in the Canadian Arctic several men of the Franklin Expedition are buried; he is a minor character in my novel
The Rifles
.

Footnote: Dana’s observations on California Indians—Op. cit., p. 215.

A California county history . . . “The dress was, for the males . . .”—Loc. cit. These details of the Indian missions were repeated more or less verbatim in the other Elliott county histories I have seen.

Footnote: Fray Junípero Serra’s worries about sending letters to Mexico—de Anza, p. 23 (General Archive of the Nation, Internal Provinces 237, Sonora No. 12, Serra to de Anza, 17 April 1776, f.43v).

“Girls reached puberty at the age of twelve . . .”—Baegert, quoted in Black, vol. 1, p. 28.

Palma as the “Capitán and Chief of the Yuma Nation . . .”—de Anza, p. 181 (Archive of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City, Book of Baptisms of Castes).

Crops of the Yumas—Heizer and Whipple, p. 248 (Pedro Font, “The Colorado Yumans in 1775”).

So an American trapper will report half a century later.—The trapper was Pattie, p. 120.

“After mass a proclamation was made . . .”—Font, p. 17 (entry for 29 October 1775).

De Anza enters Imperial: It would be tempting to imagine him to have believed that he had now passed out of Mexico. De Anza to Bucareli, 9 February 1774: “Now that the Colorado River has been joined by the Gila, it very well manifests itself to be the largest river between Mexico and this place . . .” (Bowman and Heizer, p. 111). Of course “Mexico” was merely Mexico City, and the place we call Mexico was New Spain to him.

The New River’s shallow canyon (3 feet deep in 1904), not to mention its peppergrass and desert heliotrope—
Journal of San Diego History
, vol. XXI, no. 1 (winter 1976), pp. 35-36 (“The Imperial Valley in 1904: An Account by Hugo de Vries,” ed. Peter W. van der Pas).

“It is a miserable place . . .”—Font, p. 35 (9 December 1775).

Homeward route—Ibid., p. 117 (8 May 1776).

Doings and losses of Sebastián Tarabal—Street,
Beasts of the Field
, pp. 17-19.

De Anza’s 61-league march to Arroyo de Santa Catharina—Font, pp. 33-39 (4-20 December 1775). These were Mexican leagues of 5,000 yards or 3,000 “geometric paces,” which is to say 25% shorter than Spanish leagues (ibid., p. 9).

Bancroft: de Anza’s route “cannot be traced exactly”—Op. cit., vol. XVIII, p. 22.

Fonty’s map of 1776—Reproduced in Bancroft, vol. XVIII, p. 263.

“We bade farewell to the Yumas . . .”—Font, p. 125 (15 May 1776).

Palma’s turquoise nose-bead—Heizer and Whipple, p. 251 (Pedro Font, “The Colorado Yumans in 1775”).

Remarks of El Caballero de Croix—Nunis, p. 119 (“Instructions for the Recruitment of Soldiers and Settlers for the California Expedition of 1781,” 27 December 1779, item 7).

The nudity of the Yumas has been “discontinued,” “seeing that all are covered with reasonable clothing acquired from the fabric of the Pima Nation.”—de Anza, p. 23 (General Archive of the Nation, Internal Provinces 237, Sonora No. 12, de Anza to the Most Excellent Lord Commander of Knights, Frey Don Antonio María Bucareli y Urssua [Ursúa], 22 June 1776, ff. 27-27v).

Zorita: “To give a field or other land to a Spaniard . . .”—Op. cit., p. 109.

Estimate of the Conquest’s casualties: 4.5 million—Fagan, p. 226. These “costs” are tabulated more precisely, and set against the “costs” of human sacrifice in Aztec Mexico, in the “Defense of Creed” chapter of my book
Rising Up and Rising Down
.

14 . Los Angeles (1780)

Epigraph: “Summer was counted from the time frogs were first heard to croak.”—
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County
, p. 13 (quoting the Scotchman Don Perfecto Hugo Reid’s observations on the Gabrielino Indians).

15 . Los Angeles (1781)

Epigraph: “It is the destiny of every considerable stream . . .”—Austin, p. 139 (“Other Water Borders”).

Sometime in June—Nunis, p. 10 (“A New Look at the Founding Families of Los Angeles”).

Footnote: Volunteer status of the settlers; married volunteer status of soldiers—Ibid., pp. 120-21 (Instruccion: “Instructions for the Recruitment of Soldiers and Settlers for the California Expedition of 1781,” El Caballero de Croix, 27 December 1779. Henceforth “recruitment instructions.”).

Soldiers’ uniforms—Ibid., p. 135 (“Outfits for Soldiers, Settlers and Families,” Antonio Bonilla, 10 February 1780).

Founding of Los Angeles as Our Lady of the Angels of Porciúncula—Ibid., pp. 18-19.

Governor de Neve on the “Pagans”—Ibid., p. 60 (Report No. 83, “Troops,” 26 February 1777).

“Docile and without malice . . .”—Ibid., p. 120 (recruitment instructions).

“Taken the necessary steps to prevent transmission of this news . . .”—Ibid., p. 132 (“Correspondence Pertaining to the Polbadores,” 10 September 1781).

Itemization of other settlements and missions then present in Upper California—Ibid., pp. 77-78 (Reglamento: “For the Garrison of the Peninsula of Californias . . . ,” “Second Title: Footing, pay and gratuities of the Companies . . . ,” Pedro Fages, 18 September 1781).

Newness of Santa Barbara—Ibid., p. 129 (recruitment instructions, no. 2 [enclosure]).

Number of Christian converts in the missions—Ibid., p. 86 (same Reglamento, “Fourteenth Title: Political Government and Instructions for Settlement”).

“The Head or Father of each family must be a Man of the Soil . . .”—Ibid., p. 120 (recruitment instructions).

Antonio Clemente Féliz Villavicencio and his family—Ibid., p. 26 (“Soldiers and Settlers of the Expedition of 1781”).

Their ethnicities and particular possessions—Ibid., p. 141 (“Supplies Purchased for the Pobladores,” no. 72, José de Zuñiga, Mission San Gabriel, 18 September 1781).

Settlers’ clothes—Ibid., pp. 135-36 (“Outfits for Soldiers, Settlers and Families,” Antonio Bonilla, 10 February 1780).

Ethnicities of all the settlers—Ibid., p. 162 (“Padrón of Los Angeles,” Joseph Franco. de Ortega); p. 164 (“Note on Races and Castes of Mexico”). See also 1910
Britannica
, 11th ed., vol. XVIII, p. 337 (entry on Mexico).

“Corn . . . is generally landed wormy . . .”—Ibid., p. 86 (Reglamento: “For the Garrison of the Peninsula of Californias . . . ,” “Sixth Title: Supply of articles of clothing and other necessaries . . .”).

Bestowals to settlers—Ibid., p. 101 (same Reglamento, “Fourteenth Title”).

Details of land distribution—Loc. cit., pp. 101-3.

Population of Los Angeles in 1791—Robinson, p. 39.

16 . Tía Juana (1825)

Epigraph: “The dust rises, making swirls, with flowers of death.”—Carrasco and Moctezuma, p. 71 (“Warrior Zeal”).

Arguello’s grant—After Niemann, p. 63.

17. Tecate (1830)

Epigraph: “Before mapping can begin . . .”—Greeley and Batson, p. 16.

Bandini’s grant—After Niemann, p. 68.

18 . Los Angeles (1845)

Epigraph: “And in spring . . .”—Oppian, p. 253 (“Halieutica,” ll. 473-75).

Expenses of the Los Angeles ball, August 1845—Samuel T. Black, vol. 1, p. 64.

Aguardiente:
“a sort of cognac, which was very agreeable to the palate . . .”—Elliott,
History of Tulare County
, p. 33.

Footnote: “When the ball broke up . . .”—Pattie, p. 155.

Bancroft: “pre-pastoral California”—Op. cit., vol. XVIII, p. 205.

Date of the first orange tree in Los Angeles—
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County
, p. 351.

General Sherman: “Every house had its inclosure of vineyard . . . ”—Op. cit., pp. 52-53. The date of his visit to Los Angeles was 1847.

Power of the Los Angeles River—Diehl, p. 23 (vol. ix, no. 39, January 20, 1886, “A Fierce Freshet: Los Angeles River on a Rampage, Tears Away Bridges . . . THREE LIVES SACRIFICED”).

The flood of 1886—
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County
, p. 107.

Los Angeles as the destination of runaway Mission Indians—Hartnell, p. 36 (letter to the Prefecture of the Second District—Los Angeles, June 11, 1839).

Per capita income of Mexico, 1800 and 1845—Wasserman, p. 61.

Los Angeles’s fields of wild mustard—Gumprecht, p. 23.

The irrigation canal from near Redlands to San Gabriel—Street,
Beasts of the Field
, p. 32.

Renting of Indian field laborers—Ibid., p. 36.

Los Angeles’s agricultural surplus, population, etc.—Gumprecht, pp. 46-48.

Tale of the Franciscan vineyards of San Gabriel—Street, p. 30.

Contraction of the Spanish frontier by 1845—Heizer and Whipple, p. 569 (S. F. Cook, “Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization”).

“An exceedingly lascivious dance . . .”—Bull, p. 31.

Descriptions of men’s and women’s fashions—Dana, pp. 95, 91-92.

Pattie’s scorecard of bull and grizzly combat deaths—Op. cit., p. 293.

Smashing of eggshell—Ryan, vol. I, p. 76. This took place in Monterey but presumably was the same in Los Angeles.

“The laxness and filth of a free brute . . .”—Thomas Jefferson Fernham, 1844; quoted in Pike, p. 99.

19 . West of the River (1803)

Epigraph: “God, there never was a bigger game! . . .”—Hammett, p. 300 (“Nightmare Town,” 1924).

Hamilton’s remarks on the territory west of the Mississippi—Op. cit., p. 999 (“Purchase of Louisiana,”
New-York Evening Post
, July 5, 1803).

20 . Drawing the Line (1803 -1848)

Epigraph: “We replied that the laws of our country . . .”—Pattie, p. 219.

Jefferson to Bowdoin: “Never did a nation act . . .”—Henry Adams, p. 904.

My 1976
Britannica
: “The Texan revolution was not simply a fight . . .”—Vol. 18, p. 164 (entry on Texas).

My 1911
Britannica
: “Three abortive Anglo-American invasions . . .” and “The weakness of the Mexican Liberals . . .”—Vol. XXVI (Submatine Mines-Tom-Tom), pp. 692, 693 (entry on Texas).

Ulysses S. Grant: “We were sent to provoke a fight . . .”—Grant, p. 50.

General Sherman: “California was yet a Mexican province . . .”—Op. cit., p. 55.

Grant: “My pity was aroused . . .”—Op. cit., p. 81.

21. Ranch Size (1800 -1850)

Epigraph: “Being of or from the Border . . .”—Polkinhorn et al., p. 180 (James Bradley, “Chorizos Fronterizos”).

The value of horses in 1836—Dana, pp. 142-43.

Description of Hacienda Sánchez-Navarro—After Wasserman, p. 27.

Horses for poor men in California—Osio, p. 69.

Conversion of the mission territories into private land grants—Hartnell, pp. 11-12 (prologue by Glenn J. Farris).