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065: Tales of Mexican California Pt. 1 · California Frontier

• 0:00
  Damian Bacich: In Sonoma, we were sheltered in the Mission Quadrangle, the rest of which was occupied by Don Mariano Vallejo, military commander, and his troops.
• 0:10
  Damian Bacich: We got very little support from the government for our colony and had to overcome many difficulties before even a small plot of land was under cultivation.
• 0:22
  Damian Bacich: We went along in this way, hoping things would get better and the government would make good on its promises.
• 0:30
  Damian Bacich: But When we least expected it, Vallejo's troops surprised us, took our arms, and arrested the whole colony, ordering us back to Monterrey at once Today we're beginning a series based on the memoirs of Antonio Franco Coronel.
• 1:13
  Damian Bacich: Now Coronel is somebody I quoted in the last series on Father Jose Maria del Real, the last Franciscan at Mission Santa Clara.
• 1:23
  Damian Bacich: Coronel, if you recall, mentioned running into Father Real in the gold fields in the San Joaquin River in 1848.
• 1:32
  Damian Bacich: And he had seen Father Real with, with a bunch of gold.
• 1:37
  Damian Bacich: Now, who was Antonio Coronel?
• 1:40
  Damian Bacich: Coronel was a very important figure in, particularly in Southern California.
• 1:46
  Damian Bacich: He was somebody who spent a lot of time in Los Angeles, was a booster for maintaining and preserving the memories of the California culture.
• 2:00
  Damian Bacich: in Southern California.
• 2:02
  Damian Bacich: He was involved in local and state politics after the war.
• 2:09
  Damian Bacich: A lot of his, his recollections were the inspiration for the famous novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, which talked about the Spanish and Mexican period and was meant to sort of shine a light.
• 2:23
  Damian Bacich: on the injustices being suffered by Native Americans in California.
• 2:29
  Damian Bacich: A lot of his belongings after he passed away went to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.
• 2:37
  Damian Bacich: So he, he left a big legacy.
• 2:40
  Damian Bacich: in Southern California.
• 2:42
  Damian Bacich: Just briefly, he was born in 1817 in Mexico City and actually came to California in 1834.
• 2:49
  Damian Bacich: He wasn't born in California.
• 2:51
  Damian Bacich: He came to California in 1834 with the Ijar Padres colony, which you might recall from the memoirs of Carlos Ijar, who also arrived in California in 1834 and also left recollections for Hubert Howe Bancroft's project.
• 3:10
  Damian Bacich: So he came to California from Mexico in 18 He died in 1894 and his his name is also on one of the historic buildings in the Los Angeles area where he used to live.
• 3:31
  Damian Bacich: And his memoirs were translated into English.
• 3:36
  Damian Bacich: by Dois Nunes whose version I'm going to be reading from.
• 3:41
  Damian Bacich: Nunes was a historian of the Spanish Mexican eras in California, translator and a professor at the University of Southern California.
• 3:51
  Damian Bacich: So I will be referring to the version that was translated by Dois Nunes, and I will probably also quote some of the footnotes, places where Nunes elaborates on certain things or tries to correct things that Antonio Coronel says.
• 4:11
  Damian Bacich: So, as always, these are, important documents, these memoirs, for the history of California.
• 4:20
  Damian Bacich: While at the same time, they are not necessarily rigorously historical.
• 4:25
  Damian Bacich: They're the, the memories of somebody recounting what he recalls perhaps decades after they occurred.
• 4:35
  Damian Bacich: So take that for what they're worth.
• 4:37
  Damian Bacich: And as always, you know, it's important to do your own research, understand better the context and the actual details of the things that are recorded.
• 4:48
  Damian Bacich: So without further ado, let's get into these recollections of Antonio Coronel's tales of Mexican California.
• 4:59
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And Tonio Franco.
• 5:00
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Cornell resident of the property known as Coda, Nils mansion.
• 5:05
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: About a mile south of the city of Los Angeles came to California with his parents.
• 5:11
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Don't Ignacio COTA, Nan.
• 5:13
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And Donya Francisco Romero.
• 5:14
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: The Coronet and several brothers and sisters.
• 5:18
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And here begins.
• 5:20
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: narration.
• 5:21
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: We arrived as part of the HUD and positives colony in 1834.
• 5:27
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: On the warship Modelos.
• 5:29
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Commanded by Don Lucas, man.
• 5:30
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: So.
• 5:31
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Landing in Monterrey.
• 5:34
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: My worthy father held the position of head school master of the colony.
• 5:38
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: We stayed sometime in Monterey during the dispute between general Figueroa.
• 5:44
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And Don Jose Medea.
• 5:45
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: He heard with regard to the civil command of the territory.
• 5:50
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Senior rehab.
• 5:51
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Was both civil leader and director of the colony.
• 5:55
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And senior Jose Maria Perez.
• 5:58
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: It was both military commander.
• 6:00
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And vice director.
• 6:02
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: But the rest was a native of Pueblo.
• 6:05
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And closely associated with my family.
• 6:07
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Since a child.
• 6:10
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: I was intimate friends of his sisters.
• 6:12
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Brothers and cousins.
• 6:14
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: His parents.
• 6:16
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Who were skilled workers had died.
• 6:18
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And the family lived in great poverty.
• 6:21
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Address dedicated himself to his education.
• 6:24
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: First primary school.
• 6:26
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Then mathematics.
• 6:28
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And other branches of military engineering.
• 6:31
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: All this time.
• 6:33
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: My parents helped them along as much as they could.
• 6:37
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: As a cadet.
• 6:38
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And then as an Ensign in the Corps of engineers, When he had attained this rank.
• 6:45
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Or possibly that of Lieutenant.
• 6:47
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: He first went to California with Lieutenant Colonel.
• 6:52
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: the governor.
• 6:53
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: He was with ECI.
• 6:55
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: for his term of office.
• 6:58
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Like his superior.
• 6:59
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: He was a man of extreme Republican and liberal ideas.
• 7:03
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Which he imparted to the young men of the principle families of the territory.
• 7:09
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: This arouse the antagonism of the old Spanish friars.
• 7:13
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Who were monarchists and absolutists of the old school.
• 7:18
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: During his stay in California.
• 7:20
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: But the rest devoted himself.
• 7:22
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: To the study of the geography and topography of the country and its resources.
• 7:29
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: He was the first to publish in Mexico.
• 7:31
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: The facts about the mineral and agricultural wealth of California.
• 7:37
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And it's climate.
• 7:39
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: He predicted a brilliant future for the territory.
• 7:43
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: As the most fertile, rich and helpful.
• 7:45
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: In the whole Republic.
• 7:47
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: The arrival of Delmon Welby.
• 7:49
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Victoria in 1831 to replace a Chan DIA.
• 7:54
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Change the situation.
• 7:56
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: As I said before, But the rest is progressive ideas.
• 8:00
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: And his influence on the younger generation where anathema to the friars.
• 8:06
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: They promptly dominated Victoria's policies.
• 8:11
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: In consequence, but address.
• 8:13
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Who had been an assistant inspector of troops?
• 8:16
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Was unable to remain in the country.
• 8:19
  RODECaster Duo Main Stereo: Victoria shipped him back to Mexico.
• 8:23
  Damian Bacich: From that time on, he dedicated himself exclusively to organizing a colony to immigrate to California, and warning the central government to take action before it lost, quote, the most precious pearl in Mexico's crown, as he prophetically feared.
• 8:41
  Damian Bacich: Even before the colony was organized, under the auspices of the Cosmopolitan Company, Padres was incessantly recruiting families for California, my own among them.
• 8:52
  Damian Bacich: He also tried to get the government to send political exiles on the theory that it would be good for the exiles and good for the country.
• 9:01
  Damian Bacich: In consequence, when the colonists arrived, there were several political exiles among them.
• 9:08
  Damian Bacich: These were decent people of good social position, who for purely political reasons had run afoul of the government, and were punished as severely as though they were criminals.
• 9:21
  Damian Bacich: There were also a few opponents of the dictator Santana, escaping political persecution.
• 9:27
  Damian Bacich: Now you remember that Antonio Lopez de Santana was the president of Mexico during the The whole war over Texas and the, Mexican American war.
• 9:41
  Damian Bacich: So Santana plays an important role in the history of California as well.
• 9:48
  Damian Bacich: Now returning to Coronel's account.
• 9:52
  Damian Bacich: In 1832 or 1833, Don Juan Bandini went to Mexico as California's delegate to the National Congress.
• 10:02
  Damian Bacich: A progressive, like Padres, also determined to develop, to develop the territory.
• 10:08
  Damian Bacich: He was a powerful ally for the colonial dream.
• 10:12
  Damian Bacich: And here Juan Bandini was actually a Peruvian born Californio and he spent a lot of his time in San Diego.
• 10:24
  Damian Bacich: In fact, the Bandini name is, is is all over Southern California and especially San Diego.
• 10:32
  Damian Bacich: So back to Coronel.
• 10:35
  Damian Bacich: Together they achieved their goal.
• 10:37
  Damian Bacich: It was also helpful that the vice president and acting executive, Gomez Farias, was a strong liberal and took a lively interest in the project.
• 10:48
  Damian Bacich: Approved by Congress, the convent of San Camilo in Mexico City was appointed for the colonists to gather.
• 10:56
  Damian Bacich: The interest and enthusiasm was so great that if the government had had the money, it could have sent to California more than a thousand families of moderate social status who understood the advantage of immigrants Common Mexicans in their ignorance believed California was impossibly remote, populated for the most part by barbarous Indians called Mecos.
• 11:22
  Damian Bacich: Anyone fool enough to go there was sure to suffer great trials and fall victim to savages.
• 11:28
  Damian Bacich: When the colonists were ready to set out in covered wagons and the coaches of well off families, some of the mob tried to stop them from leaving.
• 11:38
  Damian Bacich: But the wagons were escorted by armed and mounted colonists, and the government provided a squadron of cavalry.
• 11:45
  Damian Bacich: We journeyed through the republic without any more obstacle than the then lack of money, which delayed us in Guadalajara and Tepic.
• 11:53
  Damian Bacich: Señor Ijar had to mortgage his handsome estate near Guadalajara in order to cover the expenses of the expedition.
• 12:03
  Damian Bacich: From Tepic, we went to San Blas, where we found the Corvette Morelos, also the Bark Natalia, which belonged to a company of the colonists.
• 12:13
  Damian Bacich: It was said that the Natalia was the selfsame ship in which the Emperor Napoleon I escaped from Elba in 1815.
• 12:24
  Damian Bacich: Now there's a footnote here where the translator says that the thing about Napoleon was not really true, but that at that time, lots of stories, apocryphal stories about things that Napoleon were supposed to have said or done were circulating.
• 12:42
  Damian Bacich: And so this is one of them.
• 12:45
  Damian Bacich: Most of the single men and skilled workers boarded the Natalia.
• 12:50
  Damian Bacich: Also traveling on it were Ijar, Buenaventura Araujo, Horacio Serrano, Arguello, and others.
• 13:00
  Damian Bacich: The government employees and their families embarked on the Corvette, including Padres, Don Luis del Castillo Negrete, a lawyer, Don Zenon Fernandez, and Don Ignacio Coronel and their families.
• 13:14
  Damian Bacich: The Licenciado Romero, Mariano Bonilla, and his two brothers, Agustin Olvera, Jose Abrego, and others whose names I don't remember now.
• 13:25
  Damian Bacich: At sea we endured a terrible storm.
• 13:28
  Damian Bacich: The tiller was lashed, the sails taken in and furled, the fire doused, everyone was kept on rations of ship's biscuit and cheese for four days.
• 13:39
  Damian Bacich: We almost wrecked at Point Conception in the high winds and were saved by a miracle.
• 13:45
  Damian Bacich: Point Conception is off the coast of Santa Barbara.
• 13:49
  Damian Bacich: All the passengers were below decks except a boy named Vidal and myself.
• 13:56
  Damian Bacich: We happened to be in the bows looking at the storm because we had already picked up a lot of seamanship.
• 14:03
  Damian Bacich: The second in Lt.
• 14:04
  Damian Bacich: Ascona.
• 14:06
  Damian Bacich: was the watch officer.
• 14:08
  Damian Bacich: Captain Monso, who had never navigated the coast before, had been on deck a short while and told Ascona to keep good watch because we were very near land.
• 14:21
  Damian Bacich: Soon after, Monso went to his cabin.
• 14:24
  Damian Bacich: Vidal pointed out to me a rock just visible in the thick mists.
• 14:28
  Damian Bacich: I yelled, Land ho! to Ascona, who might have seen the rock at the same moment I yelled.
• 14:34
  Damian Bacich: He immediately ordered a change of course, and all hands on deck.
• 14:39
  Damian Bacich: The sailors turned out, and almost all the passengers helped to work the ship, finally reaching safety after a near escape, which frightened us all very much.
• 14:49
  Damian Bacich: Luckily, the ladies didn't realize the danger at the time, only believing we were getting to the end of the voyage.
• 14:57
  Damian Bacich: But after the storm, we were becalmed for four or five days, finally reaching the port of Monterey.
• 15:03
  Damian Bacich: The 24th of September, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, if I'm not mistaken.
• 15:10
  Damian Bacich: Monterey was too small to have lodging houses, but as soon as news of our arrival got around, the residents decided to parcel out among their houses the families in the Corvette.
• 15:21
  Damian Bacich: They went right to the beach to receive us and take us home with them.
• 15:26
  Damian Bacich: There were a very few empty rooms in the Presidio where some families were billeted as well.
• 15:32
  Damian Bacich: We had a friendly and hospitable reception on all sides.
• 15:37
  Damian Bacich: The first news we had was that General Santana had sent a special messenger overland with new orders for General Figueroa, not to transfer military or civil powers.
• 15:50
  Damian Bacich: This gave rise to a dispute between Figueroa and Padres on the one hand, and with Ijar on the other.
• 15:58
  Damian Bacich: The upshot of it was that Ihar of office, except as directors of the colony under the command of General Figueroa.
• 16:08
  Damian Bacich: They were assigned Sonoma as the place to settle, and Figueroa offered to carry out the provisos of the law relating to colonization.
• 16:18
  Damian Bacich: Almost all the colonists set out for Sonoma on horseback or in ox carts.
• 16:23
  Damian Bacich: They crossed San Francisco Bay, by the Strait of Carquines, in a launch manned by Indians from Mission San Jose, and a small boat.
• 16:33
  Damian Bacich: In Sonoma, we were sheltered in the Mission Quadrangle, the rest of which was occupied by Don Mariano Vallejo, military commander, and his troops.
• 16:44
  Damian Bacich: We got very little support from the government for our colony and had to overcome many difficulties before even a small plot of land was under cultivation.
• 16:55
  Damian Bacich: We went along in this way, hoping things would get better and the government would make good on its promises.
• 17:03
  Damian Bacich: But When we least expected it, Vallejo's troops surprised us, took our arms, and arrested the whole colony, ordering us back to Monterrey at once.
• 17:16
  Damian Bacich: Later, we found out that Figueroa had gotten the idea from Vallejo that we were conspiring against the government.
• 17:24
  Damian Bacich: I was a boy of about 16, but since my father was one of the principal and most active colonists, I was aware of all that went on.
• 17:37
  Damian Bacich: And I am perfectly satisfied there was no such conspiracy.
• 17:42
  Damian Bacich: And if it was, it existed only in Vallejo's imagination.
• 17:47
  Damian Bacich: The colonists were all too busy trying to clear the small plots the government had granted them.
• 17:53
  Damian Bacich: In the evenings, Padres and other leaders gathered at my house to play music, sing, and enjoy themselves.
• 18:02
  Damian Bacich: They talked about the progress of the colony, but there was never a word of conspiracy, nor anything like it.
• 18:10
  Damian Bacich: Or, I would have known about it.
• 18:13
  Damian Bacich: Perhaps the events in Southern California, and the part played by some of the colonists there, caused Figueroa to treat us badly, as a precaution.
• 18:24
  Damian Bacich: After the order of expulsion, most of the group went to Monterey, and some stayed at San Jose, Santa Clara, San Juan, etc.
• 18:35
  Damian Bacich: Everyone obliged to live as best he could without any help from the government.
• 18:42
  Damian Bacich: The colony was dissolved, the settlement was abandoned, and the leaders banished as disruptive elements in the peaceful territory, or so it was said.
• 18:54
  Damian Bacich: They were sent off in the frigate Santa Rosa.
• 18:58
  Damian Bacich: Dr.
• 18:58
  Damian Bacich: Torres, Apelategui, Gonzalez, Romero the lawyer, Nicanor Estrada the cavalry captain, Araujo, and others.
• 19:10
  Damian Bacich: It has often been said that the Cosmopolitan Company had a private understanding with Vice President Gomez that when the colony had taken over California, the territory would be independent of Mexico.
• 19:25
  Damian Bacich: This idea, according to what I have been able to ascertain, occurred to Santana because he mistrusted and feared Gómez as a liberal.
• 19:37
  Damian Bacich: Since the colonists were all liberals too, Santana imagined Gómez was trying to set up a base of power for ulterior motives.
• 19:47
  Damian Bacich: The chief opposition to the colony was Gómez.
• 19:50
  Damian Bacich: was from the customs administrator, Don Angel Ramirez.
• 19:54
  Damian Bacich: The posthumous publication of Figueroa's version of the dispute as the Manifesto of General Figueroa, to my knowledge, contains several inaccuracies that ought to be corrected.
• 20:08
  Damian Bacich: The failure of the colony was due firstly to the distrust between Santana and Gomez.
• 20:14
  Damian Bacich: Santana's orders to Figueroa were simply to refrain from turning the civil government over to Ixal, with no provision for anyone to carry out the instructions for the establishment of the colony as projected.
• 20:29
  Damian Bacich: This occasioned the controversy between Ixal and Figueroa, but all disagreements aside, the fact was that the property of the missions was the only actual wealth in California at that time, coveted by the greedy.
• 20:47
  Damian Bacich: The communications cited in the manifesto were pure guesswork, disproven by the end results.
• 20:55
  Damian Bacich: The pretended philanthropy toward the Mission Indians, to teach them morals, educate them, and assign them the worldly goods belonging to them, was exposed by subsequent events, as all the world is aware.
• 21:10
  Damian Bacich: The missions fell into the hands of administrators, most of them the same men who formed the territorial assembly and had constituted themselves as saviors of the indigenous peoples and defenders of their interests.
• 21:26
  Damian Bacich: And here what Coronel is referring to is the whole plan to secularize the missions and the main reason given by those who wanted to do it.
• 21:38
  Damian Bacich: was that this was supposed to be an issue of justice for the native people returning lands to them that had actually belonged to them.
• 21:47
  Damian Bacich: And according to Coronel, it was all actually a ruse.
• 21:53
  Damian Bacich: The result was complete abandonment of the poor neophytes, encouragement of vice, and neglect of even the scraps of religious education given them in the time of the Padres.
• 22:07
  Damian Bacich: In this way, more than 20, 000 workers who would have been useful in developing the country and the farms, which at that time were the only resources, all vanished.
• 22:21
  Damian Bacich: Most of the administrators were poor when they started, but in no time they were the owners of the most valuable ranches formerly belonging to the missions.
• 22:34
  Damian Bacich: with great herds of horses and cattle, and the missions were poor.
• 22:41
  Damian Bacich: Thus, I hope to knock down the Castle of Cards, all unproved theory erected by General Figueroa and the Territorial Assembly.
• 22:54
  Damian Bacich: Posterity will judge between them by the end results.
• 23:00
  Damian Bacich: I don't want to justify or exalt the views and intentions of the directors of the colony.
• 23:07
  Damian Bacich: But if their intentions were bad, why did they bring intelligent, educated men with their families, when a bunch of hooligans would have been cheaper and more suited for the purpose?
• 23:21
  Damian Bacich: The Mexican government, or rather, Santana, broke his promises, abandoned the colonists so far away they could never get home again, where they could subsist only with the greatest difficulty.
• 23:36
  Damian Bacich: As an indication of how useful the colonists were to the country, even so, when they were scattered, they held government jobs, started industries, and taught at school.
• 23:49
  Damian Bacich: Many prominent Native sons owe them what little knowledge and education they have.
• 23:57
  Damian Bacich: And here, we'll finish up this part of Antonio Coronel's narration.
• 24:04
  Damian Bacich: Next time, we'll go further into his exploits in Alta, California.
• 24:10
  Damian Bacich: But you can see one of the things that he wants to do is to, is to give a different version of some of the events that had been narrated by politicians in Alta California and in Mexico and sort of which had given the Ijar Padres colony a very bad reputation.
• 24:35
  Damian Bacich: And so he wants to show that the people that came in the last colonizing expedition to Alta California in 1834 were not, a group of ne'er do wells who caused damage in the territory, but who were actually upstanding people who were trying to bring about, the betterment of the territory.
• 25:00
  Damian Bacich: And he also calls out what he considers to be the hypocrisy of the people who wanted to bring about the secularization of the missions by saying that they were fighting for the rights of the native people whereby in his view they were only fighting to fill their own pockets.
• 25:24
  Damian Bacich: So, Thank you for this.
• 25:27
  Damian Bacich: I hope you enjoyed it.
• 25:29
  Damian Bacich: We will continue in the new year with more interviews and with more episodes from the early history of California.
• 25:40
  Damian Bacich: As always, I I wish you the best and hopefully you will keep also your own investigations going into this really interesting time period.