The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California 9780873282406

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dation Fello1vship for a 1vonderful sun1tnl·r of ,tud~ in 199- ,ind an :1utumn of revision in 2005; Roy Ritch it•.thtc1it•cla. and James Ronda, and fn>1nfC'l101v panC"listsRaquel ~laria Cas.1s and Donna Schuele, helped to steer n1e in the right direction. Portions of the book also appeared in the essay" Fathers of the Pueblo: Patrian:hr :1nd Po1ver in Mexican California 1800-1880." published in c·"1lli11cutal Crossroads (Duke University Prl•ss, 2004). 1"111 grateful to 111y h 1c. t hi c, u in - io _ar:riHo, CaliCornia had b lon,g d t , h ' nit ~d. . for ju . · n t e r . Yf! i r 1·h l ti I t', n er i1 an · I d already begun to· ri ;e 'heir - n version 01 - " 'for 1i/ ·Spanj ·h nd .·t .,i ~ 1

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unremembered \ uld -.. This stud . 1. ·. a 1. _e r h Ip..·1 pl-_c_.;Sp··nit·h..· ,ex:ican•a_ th cent,· r o_ . a.Ji rni _ •e 1" • - nd i _he o,r]d through their.. s~.~n·sod i · 1t refut t r ot1 11 that - - ica n.Ca~i ~ · r n :1a.·\ as.a b ac -·-a rd] r ~ di ~on- boon d pI ,. . a i in , Jr m r ican -nt rpr:·seto bring i·ti ,, o t e ·m.od r , · rld. 3nd en in~1gheliplie-· b J

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not the one that Vallejo would ha,·e told. This book does examine closely the lives of a f.,w of those in the elite class. but it dues not simply record their great deeds and individual glory. It explores the nature of conquest on the peripheries of empire. but does not tell the triumphal story of His• panic civilization brought to a wild frontier outpost. And although it studies the lives of fathers and sons, it does not grant them the only voices of authority. Through the story of one familr. this book investi• gates the ways in which ,\11..xicans on a coastal frontier constructed and negotiated patriarchy front one generation to the next, from the late colonial era through to the U.S.occupation of the 1840s. In many ways. my own scholarly journey renects the path that most Amc:ricans have taken whtr1nc ,u, !p.1111,h and Ntexicanstory.p?t 1nmanyw.tys tlh.•.1rn,·.1I,,1 :\ mt·rigr.q)pl,·d with these changes in thl' 11t·\\·rt•public. and con,·t·r ....1t11111..; ,thulp.1t11 archy continued bet,veon. rlan1ily usu ally take one of two po!-.siblc:-ipproaches: tht·y either t l.11111 lhl· "pl.1us1bll' typicality" of their subject. as a "',l)' lo uncov