Thread: On the trail of California's Mexican past

Funny thing I thought the Missions were built by Spain! Oh, that's right anything Spain built owed or discovered was really done by Mexicans. Love that LA times boy

On the trail of California's Mexican past

The era was brief, but influential. Revisit those years with a classic road trip. Not every history lesson includes margaritas, but this one does.

By Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:55 PM PDT, June 27, 2008



Welcome to Mexicalifornia. And no, I'm not talking about immigration policy or demographic trends or domestic hiring habits. I'm talking about that spell from the early 1820s to the late 1840s, when California, Alta y Baja, was Mexican.

All it takes to bring those years back, touristically speaking, is three or four days on the road, roaming between the rolling, wine-rich Sonoma hills and the cool, foggy coastline of the Central Coast. Even without the historical underpinning, the route makes for a classic California road trip. But this way, you end up with an inkling of what went on after JunÃ*pero Serra retired and before that guy found gold at Sutter's Mill.

Depending on how you count, California's Mexican era lasted 24 to 27 years. Longer than the Pony Express did business, longer than Billy the Kid lived, longer than Walter Alston managed the Dodgers.

It was enough time for Mexico's leaders to banish Spanish Franciscans from control of the mission system they began in the late 18th century; time for cattle-ranching to create a new economy from 8 million acres of land grants.

It was time enough for some of the state's most influential buildings to rise, brick by adobe brick; time enough for a new wave of immigrants bearing goods and ideas from all over; and time enough for the state's first ruling class -- the ranchers -- to viciously exploit Indian labor even as Mexico's leaders banned slavery.
This itinerary is full of options -- add on a day in wine country near Sonoma or in gold country near Sacramento, or in Carmel near Monterey. Or just head south for a single night in old San Diego.

Not every history lesson comes with jaunty music and tall margaritas, but this one does.

DAY 1: SONOMA AND PETALUMA

We start where the missionaries stopped. The rustic frontier never looked as good -- or as comfortable.

Sonoma is where, in 1823, Spanish Franciscans founded San Francisco Solano, their last California mission. Here it is on the town plaza, full of historical displays and cool, dark rooms sheltered from the heat by adobe walls 2 to 3 feet thick.

By the time the mission was up and running, this territory had already passed into Mexico's control. No shots were fired. Many Spanish soldiers simply went to work for Mexico. Before long, a town grew up around the mission and military barracks, complete with a leafy central plaza and a lavish home for Commandant Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.

Vallejo, a California native with Spanish blood, in 1834 became the top Mexican military official in the north. Over time, the Mexican governor granted him 66,000 acres, making him one of the state's wealthiest ranchers.

Vallejo's fortunes dwindled after the Americans took over. But there's plenty here to remind you of his heyday. Six buildings from the Mexican days remain near Sonoma's prosperous plaza, and together they make up Sonoma State Historic Park.

It's best to dip in and out of the Mexican 19th century between bites and browsing at the Sonoma Wine Shop or Maya Restaurant or Ben & Jerry's or Artifax Gallery or A Taste of Italy.

Then, for a reminder of how rustic and empty the country was when Vallejo ran his cattle, head out to Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park.

It may be lonely. This was headquarters of the ranching empire, but hours can pass between visitors to the stark, wood-trimmed, two-story adobe.

Standing upstairs on the redwood balcony floor, you can scan thousands of acres and imagine they're all yours, with 600 or more workers queuing up for hot meals from the big, round outdoor ovens and three-legged caldrons. Downstairs, peek at the period furniture and imagine the stench of cowhides drying on the fence.

DAY 2: SACRAMENTO

In 1839, German-born Swiss entrepreneur Johann "John" Sutter got off a ship at San Francisco and persuaded the governor to grant him 48,000 acres along the American and Sacramento rivers. He called his place New Helvetia and built a fort, with a mill to follow in Colona, 40 miles east. Sutter's fort was the first non-Indian settlement in California's Great Valley. It also became the prime destination for westward overland travelers that began in the wake of trapper Jedediah Smith's first successful journey in 1826.

In 1849, gold was found at the mill, the California Gold Rush began, and in the middle of this burgeoning wealth, Sutter somehow found a way to lose his fortune. But when you visit Sutter's Fort State Historic Park, that's all still in the future.

The state parks people, working with a site that was overrun and dismantled in the late 19th century, have rebuilt and outfitted the fort with 1846 in mind. The fort flies a U.S. flag out front but a Mexican flag inside the walls because, remember, it's 1846 and we're in Mexico.

I happened to reach the fort just as a gaggle of fourth-graders from Noralto School in Sacramento was rolling up in a horse-drawn wagon. Each had a historic character to portray.

"I built the fort in 1839 for people like you who are weary travelers," said Mr. Sutter, who was played by Carlos Barrera. Nearby stood Mariano Vallejo, played by Diego Ramirez. Sutter's friend John Bidwell, played by Vincent Xiong, occasionally turned to whisper with a friend in Hmong.

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/l...ia29-2008jun29

In a country where there are buildings and structures all over the place influenced by many different cultures and reminiscent of all eras, exactly what IS the point of this article?

There is a fringe of the Reconquista movement that considers the Oregon Territory, Louisiana Purchae and Florida parts of Mexico as rightful claimants to lands once claimed by Spain.

Do not forget more recent construction that what we call Mission Era Style is called Neo Californiano

Ya.....just like hispanics discovered Florida! Spanish speaking people came from Spain. The natives adopted it like they adopted English here.

I was watching the movie Geronimo for awhile last night. There was no love lost between the American Indians and the Mexicans. I don't know Apache, but they spoke it quite well in the movie and it resembled nothing like Spanish. Wasn't even a Spache, or Apanish. And this supposidly took place in Arizona and California.etc. Granted, it's a movie and maybe not 100% accurate.....but we now wonder if much is.

All I know is America wasn't wasn't a utopia before we got here and all this America and white european bashing didn't get by without having its own consiquences back then......not to mention how "nice" were the Spainards when they "discovered" a nation. Didn't look to stellar to me.

In a country where there are buildings and structures all over the place influenced by many different cultures and reminiscent of all eras, exactly what IS the point of this article?

We have ethnic buildings across the country.......gothic in Chicago, German here, Swedish there, Doesn't mean you have a "right" to run everyone out or claim it hundreds of years later as "your peoples". So it's ours! Heck poor people up north started stuccoing their homes, after seeing Spanish buildings, as a cheap way to get by without re-bricking and re finishing everything.. Nice 2 story wood buildings don't do well in extreemly hot climants. Spanish structures don't handle 6 ft of snow on their roofs either. Many were built for the climates they functioned in and the material native to that area....from roof slopes to the material they used. People liked the different designes.....modified some to fit their climate.....but articles like this sound nothing more than......see.....we were here first....it's ours. Problem is.....they weren't.....the Spanish were. Otherwise we'd have t-pees and igloos and caves and whatever else. We see massive distruction across the country from storms.....yet there are buildings still standing hundreds of years later and went through tons of these storms before. There are buildings still standing hundreds of years later when others look like a dropped tooth-pick box.

I even remember, being a sufferer of allergies, where the distination point was...... Arizona. Till I went to go there and found out people brought in other plants and it changed the environment. They put non- native plants in the environment and it changed things. Rock the boat, change things too much and you ruin things. Nature is a fine balance.

Hang it up if you think Chicago is your next Mexican destination. It's not Mexican, Spanish or anything in-between.....this is now, nor was ever their climate or home. It's also not a conclusive environment for your "culture".

Originally Posted by crazybird

Hang it up if you think Chicago is your next Mexican destination. It's not Mexican, Spanish or anything in-between.....this is now, nor was ever their climate or home. It's also not a conclusive environment for your "culture".

CB, you can't get off that easy, form what I understand Mexicans own all of North America. You see they have some indigenous blood and if you're not of their race you don't belong in the Americas. And they call us racist!

CB, you can't get off that easy, form what I understand Mexicans own all of North America. You see they have some indigenous blood and if you're not of their race you don't belong in the Americas. And they call us racist!

And even if you do have indigenous blood in you and took a DNA test to prove it, if you don't look it, you still don't count. It is racism to the inth degree.

Our local Mission was built by the Spanish and local Indians. Actually they built it twice, the first one was knocked down in an earthquake. Then the Mexicans took over and used the Mission as barns to house livestock, it eventually fell into ruin. In the 1930's Americans under the Civilian Conservation Corps re-built it.