Latest / California Frontier / 080: Soldiers' Wives on the California Frontier Part 2 | April Farnham, Ethnohistorian

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080: Soldiers' Wives on the California Frontier Part 2 | April Farnham, Ethnohistorian · California Frontier

• 0:00
  So today we're going to finish off my interview with ethno historian April Farham, and we're gonna talk about some of the families, these mixed families of Spanish and indigenous people that came together.
• 0:17
  In the late 18th century and populated California down into the 19th century.
• 0:24
  April's going to talk about specific names, people, places, especially in Northern California, in the area north of San Francisco, and get into what.
• 0:37
  Their contributions, what their lives were like, and we're gonna bring it back as far as the Anza Expedition, which brought the whole big group of settlers from Northern, what is today, northern Mexico, Southern Arizona.
• 0:54
  So Nora to California and to specifically the northern part of the San Francisco Bay area.
• 1:02
  We're either going to talk about, you know, what it was like to be a California, uh, uh, Mexican, California woman and live in the south of the United States during the 1860s at the time of the Civil War.
• 1:18
  So I.
• 1:19
  There are some real fascinating details that April's gonna lead us through, and I hope you'll find some interesting nuggets in it.
• 1:28
  I definitely did, and I'm really looking forward to the things that April is going to publish and write about in the future.
• 1:38
  So let's sit back and, uh, watch or listen to my interview with April Farnam.
• 1:53
  Damian Bacich: Is there anything recently or even not so recently that has surprised you or that maybe was unexpected that you found out?
• 2:04
  April Farnham: uh, yeah.
• 2:05
  April Farnham: So, um, in looking specifically at this, these matrimonial investigations, um, the one that was done particularly for, uh, Maria's grandmother, Ana, and a soldier that she married, Marcus Illa.
• 2:23
  April Farnham: Um, it's really been a fascinating window to, a couple scholars I really appre, um, respect and admire Rosemary B right.
• 2:31
  April Farnham: And Robert Sanquez, and their research and their writings.
• 2:35
  April Farnham: The fact that the soldiers themselves, uh, had a direct participation, um.
• 2:43
  April Farnham: In these marriages and baptisms, um, you know, both as witnesses and padrinos, you know, godparents, um, very, um, directly involved, right?
• 2:58
  April Farnham: With these, at least it seems, again, from the writing, uh, with these, um, different events.
• 3:06
  April Farnham: And, um, I mean, I knew about Rosco, I knew about God parentage and the importance of that.
• 3:12
  April Farnham: Um, there's a really great book, uh, father of All by Louis Poz, um, uh, they had us read in graduate school, and that really gave me appreciation for how much the, like the De la Gures were involved when the, um, you know, the different baptism ceremonies and marriages, uh, down south.
• 3:31
  April Farnham: Um, but just recently looking at, you know, some of these matrimonial investigation, it's really given me appreciation for how involved, particularly like these early soldiers of the um.
• 3:42
  April Farnham: Uh, the different, uh, you know, founding expedition, Spanish Expeditions of California, like the ONS expedition or the Portola expedition, uh, how much they were involved, right?
• 3:54
  April Farnham: In these early, um, intermarriages, uh, between soldiers and native women at the missions.
• 4:02
  April Farnham: That, that's been particularly interesting to me.
• 4:05
  Damian Bacich: Yeah, I think that's really interesting as well.
• 4:08
  Damian Bacich: And didn't, some of your research has actually gone back to the ONS expedition, right?
• 4:13
  Damian Bacich: Um, uh, to, uh, Maria Felician Arba and her descendants are, and the, the Juarez women are connected to her line as well.
• 4:25
  Damian Bacich: Am I wrong or am I getting two things mixed up?
• 4:28
  April Farnham: Well, uh, no, you're, you're not getting'em mixed up, so it has to do, um, it's not a direct blood lineage.
• 4:34
  April Farnham: So, so, so what it is, is, um.
• 4:39
  April Farnham: Ana Maria, uh, you know, she was from, uh, a local village in Monterey called the Chasta, which we think might have been a, uh, a ranch area that was, uh, created.
• 4:51
  April Farnham: Uh, again, I'm going by some of, uh, research by Randy Milliken, um, uh, that was created or relocated right next to Mission Carmel, right, for the purposes of, um, converting local costanoan rums and eSalon people, uh, uh, to the Catholic religion in that area.
• 5:12
  April Farnham: And, um, so, uh, her parents, um, were specifically, uh, sorry, I have to look up the names here real quick.
• 5:21
  April Farnham: I apologize.
• 5:22
  April Farnham: Uh, uh, her, her father's name was, uh, Joseph Cristobal Carillo, right?
• 5:29
  April Farnham: That was his Spanish baptized name.
• 5:30
  April Farnham: His Christianized name, and the reason why he had this last name Carillo.
• 5:35
  April Farnham: Is because his godparent at his baptism, uh, was Jose Mundo Carillo, right?
• 5:43
  April Farnham: The one of the founding, uh, clan fathers, if you will, of the Carillo family in San Diego, right.
• 5:51
  April Farnham: Jose Mundo, Carillo.
• 5:53
  April Farnham: Um, and, uh, so his connection with Maria, you know, in terms of the Rio surname, um, uh, so Maria had married my understanding, uh, Joaquin Corillo and Jose Mundo, and Joaquin, and you might know more about this than I do.
• 6:13
  April Farnham: Um, so feel free to jump in Damian on this.
• 6:16
  April Farnham: Um, as far as I can tell the lineages, Jose Raimundo and Joaquin were either brothers or one was a nephew, uncle.
• 6:23
  April Farnham: It was that type of relationship.
• 6:25
  April Farnham: Um, so it's, it's by marriage, right?
• 6:29
  April Farnham: That, um, the, uh.
• 6:32
  April Farnham: You know, Jose Cristobal Carillo and his wife, Delfin de Jesus Carillo, right?
• 6:39
  April Farnham: They had a daughter, Ana Maria Carillo, um, uh, would've been her quote unquote maiden name, right?
• 6:50
  April Farnham: But maiden name in terms of, you know, under the Spanish, uh, doctrine of, uh, marriage, uh, in, in the mission institution.
• 7:00
  April Farnham: Um, that possibly right, this, this kinship, kinship was understood between, uh, Maria Juarez and Maria Carillo.
• 7:12
  April Farnham: I, I can't prove that for sure.
• 7:14
  April Farnham: I haven't seen anything yet in the writing or the letters that the two of them understood that they had this kinship.
• 7:22
  April Farnham: Um, it's possible though, um, uh, you know, I'll give credit to Jennifer Lucita, who I know you've had on your show before.
• 7:31
  April Farnham: Um.
• 7:32
  April Farnham: And she wrote an amazing article, her and Scott Light on, uh, for, uh, bulletin 2018, um, patriarchal Brokers and Cultural Bedfellows where she explains, uh, very clearly how Maria Carillo was multilingual.
• 7:48
  April Farnham: Uh, she knew the Diano Diano languages right in San Diego area.
• 7:54
  April Farnham: And then when she came up here to Sonoma and established her Rancho outside of Santa Rosa, she quickly taught herself, uh, some of the local, um, I think not just Pat one, but Pomo and possibly maybe even wpo, um, dialects, local dialects.
• 8:12
  April Farnham: And, and similarly, you know, Maria Juarez was multilingual and, um, and, and Maria had seemed to have a relationship with her.
• 8:22
  April Farnham: Uh.
• 8:23
  April Farnham: Uh, the servants, the indigenous servants that she had working for her on her Rancho in the same way that Maria Juarez did here in Napa.
• 8:31
  April Farnham: Uh, so I can't help but think that perhaps they did at one time run into each one each other.
• 8:39
  April Farnham: Uh, especially when, um, Maria and Cayetano were living briefly in Sonoma before they moved to Napa.
• 8:48
  April Farnham: Um, they, you know, there was housing there for the soldiers families, um, not just at the, the barracks, uh, when Vallejo moved over there in 1833, but there was soldiers housing cul for the esta guards.
• 9:05
  April Farnham: Right.
• 9:06
  April Farnham: And, and CAO was part of the original estas, um, that, uh, served the Padres at Mission San Francisco Solano.
• 9:16
  April Farnham: So he, he was there as early as 1827.
• 9:19
  April Farnham: Um, and shortly there.
• 9:23
  April Farnham: Go ahead.
• 9:24
  Damian Bacich: oh, sorry.
• 9:25
  April Farnham: Right.
• 9:26
  Damian Bacich: knowing how connected all these family.
• 9:29
  Damian Bacich: Were, and the, um, and the small number of, of people there were non-indigenous people.
• 9:37
  Damian Bacich: Um, I can't imagine that they wouldn't have known each other.
• 9:40
  Damian Bacich: It would seem to me, you know, even if there's not evidence that yet, it would seem that they, they must have known each other and interacted.
• 9:49
  April Farnham: I think they did.
• 9:49
  April Farnham: And, and possibly even Venetia Viejo, you know, being that Maria Carillo was her mother, uh, and, you know, Francisca Venetia Carillo was her maiden name before she became a Viejo.
• 10:03
  April Farnham: Um, uh, possibly had some interaction with Maria Juarez.
• 10:09
  April Farnham: Through, through the husband, through Cayetano.
• 10:12
  April Farnham: Um, Cayetano is often cited as a, a loyal friend of Mariano.
• 10:18
  April Farnham: They go back to like Monterey Presidio days.
• 10:21
  April Farnham: I, I think, so Bejo was born first, and then Cayetano was born a couple years afterwards.
• 10:28
  April Farnham: But they kind of grew up as childhood friends, is my understanding.
• 10:32
  April Farnham: Um, and, uh, you know, uh, ano was a pretty loyal soldier who served under, you know, by his, um, supervision and his reward for that loyalty.
• 10:49
  April Farnham: Right.
• 10:49
  April Farnham: And his service was a Rancho Toula guy.
• 10:52
  April Farnham: Um, so there was a definitely, it seemed like a close relationship there.
• 10:57
  April Farnham: Friendship and, um.
• 11:00
  April Farnham: It, it, you know, Cayetano was there when, um, uh, uh, Mariano was arrested by the Bear flaggers.
• 11:09
  April Farnham: Right.
• 11:10
  April Farnham: Um, he sent his brother to try to rescue, uh, uh, Mariano on route to Sutter's Fort.
• 11:16
  April Farnham: But, you know, uh, at the time, Mariano declined and there's, there's a whole story.
• 11:21
  April Farnham: You can look that up.
• 11:22
  April Farnham: Um, and that was CAO's brother Vicente, I believe that was his first name.
• 11:29
  April Farnham: Um, and so, you know, he was always speaking up and, and writing on, um, Mariano's behalf.
• 11:38
  April Farnham: Um, and so it, it, it, to me, it, it would seem natural that at some point, I'm sure Benicia had some kind of relationship, or at least acquaintance with Maria
• 11:52
  Damian Bacich: Reading
• 11:52
  April Farnham: the family,
• 11:53
  Damian Bacich: his
• 11:54
  April Farnham: and
• 11:54
  Damian Bacich: Right.
• 11:55
  Damian Bacich: It almost seemed like he was.
• 11:58
  Damian Bacich: is ano, it
• 11:59
  April Farnham: mm-hmm.
• 11:59
  Damian Bacich: he was defending himself at a certain point not having rescued General Vallejo when he was imprisoned by the bear flaggers.
• 12:09
  Damian Bacich: And, and he, he makes the point, well, my brother went over there and, and he didn't, he thought it would be too dangerous, so he told him not to rescue him.
• 12:21
  Damian Bacich: and also thought it was funny that, that the brother, uh, dressed as a woman right, to kind of, sneak in and, and talk to them and then, then sneak out.
• 12:30
  Damian Bacich: Um, there's so many of these stories that are still in, the archives that, um, that are little by little trickling out, but there's still so much to know.
• 12:44
  April Farnham: Absolutely.
• 12:46
  April Farnham: And like I said, I keep feeling back the layers and every time I find a new name of a soldier or, um, you know, a, a wife or you know.
• 12:56
  April Farnham: So just in that, that one matrimonial document that was translated, there's so many different names that have sent me, you know, in different, uh, research paths.
• 13:10
  April Farnham: Um, one other one I'll, I'll highlight in that matrimonial investigation was, uh, so one of the soldier witnesses who signed off on the, um, the letter for the matrimonial investigation was Vicente Brianne, right?
• 13:27
  April Farnham: Vincent Brianne, who is one of Brianne's, uh, grandfather and also one of these early soldiers on the, um, I think it's Ons expedition.
• 13:37
  April Farnham: Um, and, uh, just the fact that he was there at that time, uh, and, and you know, he was signing off another inner marriages as well, right?
• 13:49
  April Farnham: With, with, uh, Padre Luan Ferman Lessen, uh, and um.
• 13:55
  April Farnham: So that, you know, every, every time I find names like that, uh, it just fascinates me.
• 14:00
  April Farnham: And I, I wanna learn more about those particular individuals, um, and how they connect to this story, right?
• 14:07
  April Farnham: That, um, so far has been centered on Maria Juarez, but, uh, again, it's like it's becoming bigger and bigger, uh, and more all encompassing,
• 14:20
  Damian Bacich: Where are things leading you right now?
• 14:23
  Damian Bacich: What, what are you, what direction are you working on at this moment?
• 14:30
  April Farnham: um, with, with this story or with other,
• 14:36
  Damian Bacich: Well, with that story, but if you've got other stories as well that that'd be interesting to know too.
• 14:41
  April Farnham: um, yeah.
• 14:42
  April Farnham: Um, so I mean, I, I definitely want to, um, you know, with the translation of Kai's testimonial, um.
• 14:53
  April Farnham: And then this matrimonial investigation that kind of, uh, uh, traces Maria Juarez's lineage right back to the indigenous peoples.
• 15:04
  April Farnham: Um, I do wanna write an article, serious article for bulletin or another publication, uh, to talk about that.
• 15:12
  April Farnham: Um, and then, uh, you know, I, um, recently started reading some of the letters of, um, another woman, uh, California woman named, uh, Maria Ampa, um, who had a, uh, you know, highly educated California and a woman, which was unusual for the time, um, uh, who she had a direct relationship with, uh, Mariano Bejo.
• 15:38
  April Farnham: Um, a correspondence and, um, uh, a num a few scholars have, have, have written about her, um.
• 15:48
  April Farnham: But a lot of our letters have just been published in Spanish and, um, which I think is wonderful.
• 15:55
  April Farnham: Um, but I think it would also help the general public to understand a little bit more about, um, specifically about the California's feelings about the Bear Flag revolt and about annexation.
• 16:08
  April Farnham: Um, if those letters were all translated from Spanish to English.
• 16:15
  April Farnham: Um, you know, my understanding is, uh, Rosemary Beeb and, and, um, Dr.
• 16:20
  April Farnham: Seitz, Dr.
• 16:20
  April Farnham: Beeb and Dr.
• 16:21
  April Farnham: Seitz have already translated a few of those letters and we'll be publishing them.
• 16:26
  April Farnham: But I, there's a whole collection, um, different archives.
• 16:30
  April Farnham: Uh, one of'em is at the, uh, um, Santa Barbara Archives Library.
• 16:36
  April Farnham: I think another collection is at the Huntington Library where I would like to kind of, um, I.
• 16:42
  April Farnham: You know, go down that rabbit hole, so to speak, and, and see if we can't, uh, translate those letters.
• 16:48
  April Farnham: So, uh, we can understand, um, you know, uh, uh, more about Mr.
• 16:55
  April Farnham: Vallejo himself, right.
• 16:56
  April Farnham: And, and, uh, what his values were and, you know, why did he choose to correspond so much with this particular, uh, Californian woman?
• 17:06
  April Farnham: Um, and, uh, see what, what she, what light she could shed right on, on the history here, Sonoma through the American period.
• 17:17
  April Farnham: Um, so that's, that's kind of where I'm going right now with that.
• 17:22
  April Farnham: Um,
• 17:22
  Damian Bacich: she write a, a novel, Squatter and the Dawn is that Maria Ruiz?
• 17:27
  April Farnham: yeah, a couple of them.
• 17:28
  April Farnham: Yeah.
• 17:28
  April Farnham: But squatter and the dawn, supposedly the dawn character is based on ano, uh, inspired by him and his life.
• 17:38
  April Farnham: Um, and, um, I forget the other book she wrote.
• 17:42
  April Farnham: She wrote a couple books and she was married to a civil war, um, uh, gentleman, civil war officer, lived in the south for a while, so, and that, that is very interesting to me, right?
• 17:55
  April Farnham: How she navigated this.
• 17:56
  April Farnham: You know, she was a California nana, uh, in the 1860s living in the American South, and she still had very strong feelings about, uh, the way in which, uh, Mexican, California had been annexed by the us.
• 18:15
  April Farnham: Um, but then she also had very strong feelings and opinions about the Civil War itself and what was going on there.
• 18:23
  April Farnham: Uh, so just really fascinating lady.
• 18:27
  April Farnham: Um, and I've just now, you know, just the tip of the research tip of the iceberg in terms of what I'm learning about her and, and reading up on.
• 18:37
  April Farnham: Uh, her life.
• 18:38
  April Farnham: And, um, you know, like I said, some people have, uh, written full biographies on her, but as far as I can tell, nobody's published all of her letters in English, just in, uh, mostly Spanish.
• 18:51
  Damian Bacich: Yeah,
• 18:51
  April Farnham: Um,
• 18:51
  Damian Bacich: had, I think, I we'd probably know because I'm, I'm certainly not aware of it.
• 18:58
  April Farnham: yeah.
• 18:58
  April Farnham: Yeah.
• 18:59
  April Farnham: And, um, and I know I realize that when anytime there's a translation from one language to another, as, as I, uh, witness and experience with translating Hawaiian newspaper articles right into English, that there's some cultural meanings lost, there's some, um, some understandings, right, that are sometimes lost in translation.
• 19:24
  April Farnham: And, and so I respect, you know, wanting to publish right in the original language that it was written.
• 19:32
  April Farnham: But again, um.
• 19:34
  April Farnham: I think if, if it could be published in multiple languages, um, then it would just go further in educating everybody right about that history
• 19:46
  Damian Bacich: Yeah, I
• 19:46
  April Farnham: and, and then.
• 19:47
  Damian Bacich: you have languages, then you can sort of a dialogue about.
• 19:53
  Damian Bacich: what, what is the meaning of this and what is the meaning of that in its context?
• 19:59
  Damian Bacich: And, and you can go back and forth, but, but yeah, you need them both and you definitely need them both.
• 20:05
  Damian Bacich: Even though, um, there are, know, a growing number of, of Spanish speaking people in California, which is great, but, but we also need, you know, the vast majority of people are still, uh, mainly English speakers.
• 20:20
  Damian Bacich: And, and I think for English speakers to be able to access that material, it also helps make, um, round out the picture of our history better, right?
• 20:35
  Damian Bacich: Um, because you do get access to things that you wouldn't have access to otherwise and, and helps you, complete the mosaic, you know, so to speak.
• 20:47
  Damian Bacich: So,
• 20:48
  April Farnham: Right.
• 20:49
  April Farnham: Definitely.
• 20:50
  April Farnham: I,
• 20:51
  Damian Bacich: Have
• 20:52
  April Farnham: yeah.
• 20:53
  Damian Bacich: oh, sorry, go ahead.
• 20:56
  Damian Bacich: Have you interacted with, any of, uh, any Juarez descendants?
• 21:03
  April Farnham: Um, I did briefly.
• 21:04
  April Farnham: So, um, shortly after we moved here to Napa, um, I had a stint as a librarian in Napa County Library.
• 21:11
  April Farnham: And, um, one of my first talks, um, was about, uh, uh, you know, just kind of what I learned about these basket collections and the connection to the Juárez family.
• 21:24
  April Farnham: And so some of the descendants.
• 21:26
  April Farnham: So they were, as I recall, they were the, the children and grandchildren of Vivian Wares, Juarez, uh, who, like I said, wrote that book, FA passed his father of the present.
• 21:38
  April Farnham: Uh, and they came, um, uh, uh, again, I think they were from the Vallejo area.
• 21:45
  April Farnham: Um, and they, uh, they were surprised to.
• 21:48
  April Farnham: So this is always gratifying to me, right, to, they were surprised to learn.
• 21:54
  April Farnham: Um, that where those baskets ended up, right.
• 21:58
  April Farnham: They didn't realize that like the sewing basket that Maria Juarez had and uh, now resides, uh, doesn't reside with California State Parks.
• 22:07
  April Farnham: It resides over at the, uh, Phoebe Hearst Museum collection.
• 22:10
  April Farnham: Right.
• 22:11
  April Farnham: And, um, I think they were seeing that basket for the first time in probably years.
• 22:16
  April Farnham: I don't know.
• 22:18
  April Farnham: Um, and, uh, I, I could be wrong, but I think they were also surprised to kind of understand this connection to the indigenous peoples of Napa.
• 22:29
  April Farnham: Um, because the mem the family memoirs themselves are so focused on the Spanish and, um, Mexican, uh, lineage, uh, from those early Anza expedition, um, soldiers and, and families coming into California that um.
• 22:49
  April Farnham: You know, the, maybe the indigenous parts of the story had kind of been, you know, erased a little bit over time and, um, so I'm hoping to reconnect with these individuals.
• 23:01
  April Farnham: Um, I know that they were also, uh, consulted when, uh, the old Adobe here in Napa was fully restored.
• 23:10
  April Farnham: Um, and, uh, hopefully, you know, maybe they'd be willing to, you know, sit down and share their memories.
• 23:18
  April Farnham: Maybe they have stories, family histories that were passed down that weren't documented previously.
• 23:24
  April Farnham: Um, again, to really kind of maybe build up this Maria's story a little bit more.
• 23:31
  April Farnham: Ano gets a lot of credit here in all the Napa history books, but, and Maria's kind of like, okay, she's a soldier's wife, she's holding down the fort, you know, the Adobe.
• 23:41
  April Farnham: But obviously she had a little more significant role to play, I think.
• 23:46
  April Farnham: Um.
• 23:47
  April Farnham: In early Napa's history, um, and in and in, in the Mexican period.
• 23:55
  Damian Bacich: Well, I think there's a big movement or a big movement.
• 23:58
  Damian Bacich: There's a movement now, that started some years back to bring out.
• 24:03
  Damian Bacich: Out the stories of these women because their role was so central.
• 24:09
  Damian Bacich: And I think that, um, as you are demonstrating, a lot of it was in maintaining and preserving culture, but also, uh, and connecting different cultures.
• 24:23
  Damian Bacich: Right?
• 24:23
  Damian Bacich: Um,
• 24:24
  April Farnham: Yeah.
• 24:26
  Damian Bacich: the, the, the, the Hispanic, the indigenous, and you know, of course women who marry married, uh, Anglo-Americans or, or Russians for that matter, you know, or Hawaiians, right?
• 24:39
  Damian Bacich: There's, played such a, a huge role from that standpoint, and there seems to be a.
• 24:45
  Damian Bacich: A movement to, to bring them out and, and tell their stories, you know, I think is great.
• 24:52
  Damian Bacich: And I also think that, um, one of the things that I'm seeing is that when you do local history or work on local families, like you're doing, um, that really, these families, especially in the, the Spanish and Mexican periods had connections all over the, the state, the territory, right?
• 25:18
  Damian Bacich: And
• 25:19
  April Farnham: Right.
• 25:19
  Damian Bacich: even if it's a family in Napa, right?
• 25:24
  Damian Bacich: They have connections in Monterey, in San Diego, in San Francisco, in Sonoma.
• 25:31
  Damian Bacich: And so it's never really the story of just a small isolated place, but it's a, a web of connections and relationships that this spreads all over the coast.
• 25:44
  April Farnham: It really is right there.
• 25:46
  April Farnham: One phrase you used in one of your podcasts earlier is this kind of the interweb or complicated kind of, uh, complex fabric, right?
• 25:55
  April Farnham: Social fabric that, that was created through the system, Rosco and uh, and baptism and so forth in the Spanish and Mexican period.
• 26:06
  April Farnham: And I, I, every day I see evidence of that here in, um, the history that I talk about and write about for Napa and Sonoma.
• 26:15
  April Farnham: Um, can I mention one other book that, uh.
• 26:19
  April Farnham: Was kind of very influential in my research for this.
• 26:22
  April Farnham: I neglected earlier to mention that one of the first books I read when we moved here to Napa was, it's called, this Land was Mexican Once by Linda Heidenreich.
• 26:33
  April Farnham: And uh, so I, I, you know, she really, I get credit for, uh, really kind of shifting the focus first from Cayetano to Maria, uh, Juarez and talking about, uh, you know, some of the, uh, indigenous history here in Napa.
• 26:52
  April Farnham: So I, I feel like I'm just kind of continuing on that work, right.
• 26:55
  April Farnham: Adding to the story.
• 26:57
  April Farnham: 'cause it, there was a few things, again, as I was peeling away the layers in my primary source research that, um, I don't think Linda was aware of, right?
• 27:08
  April Farnham: Like these baskets that I was uh, mentioning at.
• 27:12
  April Farnham: The state in the state park, uh, collection and the Phoebe Hearst museum collection and, and how that, um, was evidence of her involvement when the indigenous community, and also the fact that mission records prove that she had this direct blood, you know, lineal descent, um, to, uh, the, uh, uh, indigenous women in the Monterey region.
• 27:37
  April Farnham: So,
• 27:38
  Damian Bacich: I agree.
• 27:39
  Damian Bacich: You know, I met Linda this last October in, um, at the, in Kansas City at the Western History Association Conference.
• 27:47
  April Farnham: oh.
• 27:48
  Damian Bacich: And, um, talked, you know, I just, I saw her there and struck up a conversation with her because, you know, both, both of us having grown up in the Napa Valley and, and I had read her book.
• 27:58
  Damian Bacich: And so yeah, it was really, it was great to meet her.
• 28:01
  Damian Bacich: And I think that, that, um, that book she wrote, um, is, is exactly that.
• 28:07
  Damian Bacich: It's a great focus on, on the, the Napa area, but also exactly the lives of the women, uh, who lived there.
• 28:16
  Damian Bacich: And I, I think it.
• 28:18
  Damian Bacich: Hopefully it can be sort of a pattern for, for other books like that.
• 28:23
  April Farnham: Yeah, I agree.
• 28:24
  April Farnham: And, and, uh, when I was working at the Napa Valley Museum and that, that book was like essential reading, um, uh, for all the programs, interpretive programs that we did, um, because it was one of the first books that I encountered really focused on Napa Valley, um, and the connections between the.
• 28:48
  April Farnham: You know, early, um, pre, pre Mexican period, right?
• 28:52
  April Farnham: And the indigenous histories of, uh, Napa going through the Mexican Rancho period and then into the American period.
• 28:59
  April Farnham: And, um, uh, what, you know, what was the focus on the bear fly revolt and, and what was happening there.
• 29:06
  April Farnham: And so, yeah, um, love that book.
• 29:10
  April Farnham: Very influential.
• 29:13
  Damian Bacich: Well, yeah, I am looking forward to.
• 29:17
  Damian Bacich: the more, more things that you're gonna be doing.
• 29:19
  Damian Bacich: And I think that what you're doing now is very interesting and has a, a very broad appeal.
• 29:28
  Damian Bacich: And it's great the way that you sort of tie what you're doing to, to other scholars research and, how you're digging into the archives and bringing out these stories that need to be told.
• 29:41
  Damian Bacich: And that I really think, uh, help, help expand our vision of of the West and of this the complicated time period, which was the 19th century, right?
• 29:57
  Damian Bacich: I think there's so much that we still need to know about it and I think you're really contributing a lot to it.
• 30:04
  Damian Bacich: So I wanna really thank you for that and um, appreciate you coming on the podcast and hope you'll come back.
• 30:12
  Damian Bacich: And, um, is there anything you wanna mention about.
• 30:16
  Damian Bacich: Um, your work with Sonoma, Petaluma Parks, uh, what interesting things there are for people to, to see if they happen to be in the area.
• 30:26
  April Farnham: Oh yeah, absolutely.
• 30:27
  April Farnham: Um, you know, Sonoma State Historic Park involves Mission San Francisco Solano and General Vallejo's Home.
• 30:34
  April Farnham: And then we have our sister Park, Petaluma, Adobe.
• 30:37
  April Farnham: Uh, we are always having new events, uh, activities.
• 30:41
  April Farnham: Um, we recently had our women, uh, uh, one of the interpreters there organized a very popular Women's History Crawl event.
• 30:50
  April Farnham: It was attended by over 350 people.
• 30:53
  April Farnham: Um, different community groups, uh, came together and we were talking about prominent, uh, women, historical women, uh, in and around the area.
• 31:03
  April Farnham: Um.
• 31:04
  April Farnham: With Sparks, the Sonoma Petaluma Parks, they continue to sponsor lectures by scholars such as yourself.
• 31:11
  April Farnham: Um, I gave a talk, um, last week about, um, uh, watercolor artists, little known watercolor artists who, uh, did a lot of paintings of the missions and the Adobe's up and down California in the early 19th century.
• 31:27
  April Farnham: Um, and, uh, they also sponsor music concerts.
• 31:31
  April Farnham: So there's, there's always something fun and, um, community oriented going on there, uh, where people not just learn about history, right?
• 31:40
  April Farnham: But if they could bring their families.
• 31:42
  April Farnham: And, um, we have Children's Day coming up in June, um, that's at the Sonoma Barracks.
• 31:49
  April Farnham: Um, so if folks, you know, wanna learn more about these events, I highly encourage you to go to sonoma parks.org.
• 31:57
  April Farnham: Um, and, um, they're the nonprofit group that supports our state park and everything that we do.
• 32:06
  April Farnham: Um, and, um, yeah, so I just check it out and, uh, it's definitely worth a visit.
• 32:13
  April Farnham: I, I give lots of tours, public tours every day.
• 32:16
  April Farnham: Um, fourth graders included, uh, lots of school groups right now, but eventually also coming in the summer, we'll be offering tours, you know, 45 minutes to an hour to anybody in the public, uh, adults or families that want to just, you know, take a walk through the different structures and get a more, um, you know, broader picture of Sonoma's history and the history there.
• 32:45
  Damian Bacich: That's great.
• 32:46
  Damian Bacich: That's great.
• 32:46
  Damian Bacich: I think people that come to the Sonoma area, you know, they know it's wine country, but don't think that they often know how, how and, and fascinating the history is there as well.
• 32:59
  Damian Bacich: So it can really, round out your visit, you know, while you're, in addition to visiting the wineries and the art galleries and the, the other shops there to really touch and, and see this, this great history that made the place what it is.
• 33:14
  Damian Bacich: So, so thank you for that and all the work you do over there.
• 33:18
  April Farnham: Appreciate it.
• 33:18
  April Farnham: Thank you.
• 33:19
  Damian Bacich: Alright, well April, until, um, next time, it's been great talking to you.
• 33:26
  April Farnham: All right.
• 33:26
  April Farnham: Thank you so much, Damon.
• 33:27
  April Farnham: Appreciate being on the show.
• 33:29
  April Farnham: I.
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