Testimonios: Early California Through the Eyes of Women, 1815-1848 [Paperback]

I wrote this review specifically for a collection of newspapers published in the Salinas Valley, but I think
it's more broadly understandable. Hope you do.


California: Land of Immigrants who Quickly Become Incumbents

Testimonios is an interpreted collection of interviews with thirteen women, primarily Spaniards, who spoke with researchers employed by Hubert Howe Bancroft as he prepared to write his seven-volume History of California. These women were most often second-generation Californios - the daughters of families who came with the expeditions lead by Portola or Anza. Several of the women are from the greater Salinas Valley area and one, Maria Antonia Rodriguez Soberanes, is an ancestor in what my family calls "the Soledad Soberaneses." Maria is great-great-great grandmother to Paul Binsacca, Craig Bianchi, Dana Bianchi, Nicola Bianchi, Kathryn Bianchi, Mary Tadman, Sarah Sarmento, Steven Terry, Jana Martinez, Kerry King, and me. I am sure there are many other Salinas Valley residents who can trace their lineage to her as well.

And so what might we learn from my 3-great grandmother? One of twelve children, she bore fourteen children. Born in 1795, she married Feliciano Soberanes in 1810 and she died in 1883. In 1818, while living in Monterey, Maria remembers the appearance of a pirate ship. Women and children were dispatched to ranchos away from Monterey and the pirate Bouchard burned and sacked the city. By order of the Spanish governor of Alta California, munitions at Monterey's Presidio were destroyed rather than given over to Bouchard. At least for one cold, long night, Maria slept beneath a wagon with very little to keep her warm.

Maria's recollection of the early economy of the Salinas Valley is fascinating. Tidelands with lagoons of salt water were claimed by the Spanish crown and soldiers protected the salt when it dehydrated and began to set. This salt was taken in sacks to the royal treasury in Monterey and then sold to Spaniards for use on their ranchos. These cattle ranches needed salt licks for the animals and salt to cure the meat. Thus, the Spanish government was able to tax the cattle industry, with salt being the currency of the day. The city of Salinas and the Salinas Valley take their name from the Spanish term for salt.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking information shared by Maria, which is amplified by other women's testimonios, is a unique perspective on what I will call immigrants and incumbents. Feliciano and Maria are first-generation Californios and their parents arrived in our Salinas Valley in 1769 when the incumbents were Native American peoples. Within two generations, the Spaniards displaced the incumbents, cast off their status as immigrants, and populated large tracts of the valley. When Mexico pushed Spain out of its country, a Mexican army marched through Alta California to take the reins. No sooner than that political transition ended, Col. Fremont and the Americans arrived to drive Mexican rule south to our current border. Maria saw all four of these phases. She saw the Mexicans begin to secularize the California Missions to reduce the authority of the Catholic Church, and she watched the large ranchos held by the Spaniards given over to American settlers. King City and Soledad were once part of a Soberanes family land grant, for example.

About the American phase Maria said, stoically, "It is a law of nature that the poor shall steal from the rich. We Californians in 1846 owned every inch of soil in this country and our conquerors took away from us the greater part. The same thing has happened, I suppose, over and over again in any conquered nation..." These are certainly the words of an incumbent, not an immigrant.

California does seem to have a propensity to create incumbents just in time for the next wave of immigrants. And it's not always about ethnicity. John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath captures the collision of American immigrants from the Dust Bowl with California incumbents. Maria may well be on the right track - migration trends are about the redistribution of wealth and the motives and actions that are driven by poverty.

I commend the editors Beebe and Senkewicz for providing enough context for readers who are not California historians. And, the editors include material about the interviewers and the information-gathering process, which makes the book interesting at another level. The 470 page book is a treasure chest for anyone interested in California history in general and activities in the Salinas Valley in particular.

It is amazing to read what women said about their lives so long ago. Doing research for a book drove me to history narratives and this is a good one. It comes through as true voices and opinions that the interviewer did not anticipate. Seems very authentic.Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815-1848

A great collection of newly translated transcriptions from a generation of women who witnessed dramatic events in California's history. Included is a several page narrative of my great, great, great, great, grandmother, Juana Machado.

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