The Californios: The Heroic Deed Of The Sonoran Basques

By Carlos Peralta Dávila

This historical novel is the work of Carlos Peralta Dávila, a lawyer from Hermosillo and a dear friend of over 40 years.

The Californios tells the story of a character born in 1759 in Tubac, Arizona, who was part of colonial Sonora. Luis Ma

• Language: English
• Publisher: ibukku, LLC
• Release date: Mar 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9781685746834

Book preview

The_Californios_port_ebook.jpg

THE

CALIFORNIOS

THE HEROIC DEED OF THE SONORAN BASQUES

CARLOS PERALTA DÁVILA

All rights reserved. The total or partial reproduction of this work is not allowed, nor its incorporation into a computer system, or its transmission in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright holder is a violation of these rights and may constitute a crime against intellectual property

The content of this work is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the publishing house. All texts and images were provided by the author, who is solely responsible for their rights.

Published by Ibukku, LLC

www.ibukku.com

Cover Design: Ángel Flores Guerra Bistrain

Graphic Design: Diana Patricia González Juárez

Copyright © 2023 CARLOS PERALTA DÁVILA

ISBN Paperback: 978-1-68574-682-7

ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-68574-684-1

ISBN eBook: 978-1-68574-683-4

All suffering can be mitigated if placed within a story.

Karen Blixen

José Rómulo Félix Gastélum

April 5, 1947 - January 14, 2024

Index

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE

PREAMBLE

BACK TO SAN FRANCISCO

PART ONE

RIDING TO SAN FRANCISCO

PART TWO

SPANISH CALIFORNIA

PART THREE

MEXICAN CALIFORNIA

PART FOUR

AMERICAN CALIFORNIA

DEDICATION

In my city, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, at the intersection of its two main boulevards, stands a beautiful equestrian statue, a replica of another located in San Francisco, California, USA. Both commemorate Juan Bautista de Anza the Younger , his memory, and his deeds. However, here, most people, regardless of their cultural level, dismissively refer to this intersection as the corner of the man on the horse, thereby disregarding the name of such an illustrious figure.

In the state where he was born, Sonora, and in the one where he was a major protagonist in its foundation, California, there is a lack of recognition and appreciation for the life and work of this native of Fronteras, Sonora, New Spain. This lack of appreciation extends to all the Sonoran Basques who, in 1775, left New Navarre to colonize the daunting region of Alta California.

With this novel, I hope to contribute to settling the debt we owe them. It is an honor and a privilege to share my visions of these influential people in our history and to encapsulate them in this book. This work was made possible first and foremost by the support of my beloved wife, María del Socorro Gaxiola de Peralta. Thank you, Coquis, for staying close to me.

I also achieved this with the unconditional and sincere support of my children: Carlos Franzchen, Liza Fabiola, Luis Alejandro, Adrián Esteban, and Jorge Patricio Peralta Gaxiola. I love you very much.

The Californios is a story of vindication that Mexicans, Spaniards, and Americans alike must witness.

Carlos Peralta Dávila

The past really happened, but history is only what someone wrote.

A. Whitney Brown

INTRODUCTION

The Peralta family, to which I belong, has its roots in Navarra, Spain. Javier Peralta, my great-great-grandfather, was a contemporary of the protagonist of our story: Luis María Peralta Valenzuela. Their parents were officers in the Spanish Army and, according to generational stories, they shared a close coexistence in the mining region of Terrenate and Fronteras.

Both Basque-Sonoran families parted ways around the 1770s. Luis María’s family traveled with the group led by Juan Bautista de Anza on the second expedition to Alta California. They arrived in the northern part of that region and played a key role in the development of the main cities around the San Francisco Bay. My family branch took a different path: around the same time, they settled in what is now Villa de Seris, a neighborhood of Hermosillo, Sonora, then known as San Pedro de la Conquista del Pitic.

Under the jurisdiction of the Royal Audiencia of Guadalajara in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Sonora and Sinaloa formed the territory of New Navarre at the end of the 18th century. The Basques uplifted this productive region and, at that time, moved to Alta California to lay the foundations of what is now the State of California, USA.

Wetback is one of the most commonly used insults against Mexicans since the massive arrival of Anglos in the mid-19th century to the lands that are now part of the United States. This discriminatory attitude stems from a systematic ignorance of the legacy of the Californios, the original settlers.

The Hispanic-Mexican origin of the names of major cities and states in the American Union, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Texas, Nevada, Montana, Colorado, and Florida, were not chosen as marketing tools for tourism attraction. Nor were these names given during colonial times. Instead, it was the Anglo settlers themselves who wanted to honor this historical legacy.

By the mid-19th century, when the Californios and the rest of the Mexicans were limited in their rights and the boycott of their participation in the history of the United States began, the total population exceeded 23 million inhabitants, not counting the indigenous population. At that time, there were only 300,000 Hispanics, a very small number in that vast new territory. Hence, between the Gold Rush and the arrival of the railroad, it was easy to marginalize and sideline them.

Today, the situation has changed dramatically: with a population of 331 million, Mexicans alone number 37 million and represent 11.21% of the total population. This includes Mexican immigrants residing in the United States and those Americans who identify themselves as of Mexican origin in the census, a social group with significant economic power, amounting to a trillion dollars. This purchasing power of Mexicans will increasingly determine the growth rate of the U.S. GDP.

Yes, this novel provides an answer: among other motivations, what attracts so many Hispanic immigrants to the United States is precisely the powerful cultural heritage that endures in those lands.

The history of the Californios remains hidden, and this has motivated me to write this novel, which showcases the lives of the original founders of the United States. I see it as a story based on real events, woven through the paths of imagination.

In presenting the Californios in this way, I do not intend to give a history lesson; rather, I aspire to touch the conscience of one or all who have minimized the achievements and sacrifices of those who provided them a new soil and accessible paths that have allowed the building of today’s most powerful society in the world.

With this novel, I tried, I hope successfully, to delineate the boundaries between historical narrative and pure fiction, ensuring authenticity in the participation of real characters and accuracy in the chronology of events.

In it, I attempt to highlight the historical role of the Californios and the great nuances they had in their role as defeated actors, which, far from bringing shame to their descendants, is a source of great pride in sharing their blood and origin.

In writing this, I had to reopen painful wounds that are now only scars: I relived battles, some lost and others won. Looking to the past, I learned not to underestimate the legacy of the Californios, which does not tend to stay dormant. To this day, it is present in both the grandest and the simplest of projects, in personal endeavors and in any of the current Californian communities that value progress.

On another note, it is highly admirable to recognize that California, if independent, would be the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world. Studies reveal that this achievement is not so much due to the size of the state, with its more than 40 million inhabitants, but significantly due to the high productivity of the Hispanic-Mexican worker and their majority workforce.

It is time to demand the recognition that Hispanics north of the Rio Grande deserve, to acknowledge the existence, dignity, and value of those who are now looked down upon, so that, finally, we may see the dazzling society in which every Hispanic living in the United States is recognized, where their civic actions count as much as those of the rest of the country’s inhabitants, and therefore, they are deserving of the same treatment.

Carlos Peralta Dávila

We tell stories because, in the end, human lives need and deserve to be told. This observation gains its full strength when we consider the need to save the memory of the vanquished and the losers. The entire history of suffering cries out for vengeance and demands narration.

Paul Ricoeur

PROLOGUE

The English settlers arrived on the soil of what is today the state of Virginia in 1607; the Spanish had arrived 94 years earlier. When the English were nowhere to be seen, the real conquest of the Old West took place. The United States was not built from east to west by the English but was conquered from south to north by the Hispanics.

Thus, in 1774, the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio María Bucareli, together with Juan Bautista de Anza, structured a monumental colonization plan in response to the potential loss of the lands of Alta California, then abandoned and unproductive. For the viceroy, losing Alta California to the Russians and English, after the Spanish had fought for those lands for more than two centuries, was not an option. This is how the Californios emerged.

What followed for the Peralta and other Sonoran Basques was not an easy task; they had to survive in a very violent era, with legends and superstitions threatening their way of life and value system.

This group created its own world. They pushed forward major projects, organized political and social institutions, forged their own identity with symbols, colors, and emblems, under the seal of Spanish authority.

Many of the most interesting tourist and cultural sites in the United States are associated with Hispanic names, spread by these men and women like the seeds of the plants they brought. Their bravery and sacrifice are unparalleled in human history. Despite all these merits, in schools, children and young people are only shown the main events of this feat, and in an isolated manner.

The Spanish, in all the communities they conquered, brought European arts and literature, converting millions to the Catholic faith. Thus, they introduced, much earlier than the Anglo-Saxons, the intellectual knowledge and technical advancements of Europe at that time, bringing modern civilization to these communities.

The plot of this novel revolves around Luis María Peralta Valenzuela and his descendants. Luis María was described in the book Alameda County, Past and Present by Leslie J. Freeman, published in 1946: In person, he is tall and muscular. His manners are those of the gentlemanly men of his time and race. He dies as a respected elder, firm in the religious faith of his people.

The native of Tubac, Sonora, was an extraordinary man who managed to secure for his family and his people a central role in the tumultuous region, where flags change overnight and enemy attacks are a daily occurrence.

I hope you enjoy this vision of the heroic deed of the Sonoran Basques in the construction of the state of California, USA, with your family and feel prouder of your roots.

The narrative is based on historical events recounted in the books The Story of Rancho San Antonio by Daisy Williamson De Veer, Luis María Peralta and His Adobe by Frances L. Fox, the personal diary of Friar Pedro Font, the diary of Friar Tomás Eixarch, as well as multiple narratives and articles published in print and digital media.

Unfortunately, too many Americans believe that America was discovered in 1620 when the first settlers arrived in my own state, forgetting the formidable adventure that took place in the 16th and early 17th centuries in the south and southwest of the United States.

John F. Kennedy

PREAMBLE

BACK TO SAN FRANCISCO

Oakland, California, 1876

In front of the house at 2465 34th Avenue in Oakland, the Peralta family was making the final adjustments to their covered wagon, preparing to head to San Francisco for a horse competition among the great ranches of California.

46 25 34th Ave in Oakland.

Image sourced from Peralta Hacienda Historical Park

The celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the most beautiful city in the United States was underway. As part of the festivities, a tribute was planned for the distinguished and late Californio, Luis María Peralta Valenzuela.

The travelers were Doña Zoey Peralta de O’Farrel, daughter of Luis María Peralta Valenzuela, a sharp-minded 75-year-old woman with almond-shaped eyes, a slender nose, and a gentle, beautiful face; Pablo O’Farrel Peralta, Zoey’s 56-year-old son, tall and robust yet generous and daring, inheriting the physical strength and moral solvency of his grandfather; María Alicia Vázquez de O’Farrel, Pablo’s wife, a beautiful brunette with long hair and an attractive figure, characterized by a supportive and decisive nature; their son, Robert O’Farrel Vázquez, a 26-year-old charro competitor with tanned skin, blond hair, skilled and carefree; and Sophie Scalberg O’Farrel, another of Zoey’s granddaughters, 20 years old, with olive eyes, kind-hearted and a great horsewoman. They planned to travel first to San José and then to San Francisco in a wagon pulled by four horses.

Additionally, two people traveled on top of the wagon: a black man and an Apache Indian; they had been assistants to the Peralta family for several years. On this trip, they were responsible for driving the wagon and providing protection. The young black man carried a Winchester 1873 rifle; he was the son of a pair of slaves who had been welcomed at the San Antonio ranch by Luis María, the family patriarch. There they rebuilt their lives in freedom, with all the support and affection of the Peralta family. The young Indian, on the other hand, was the son of a Chiricahua Apache who died in the Battle of San Joaquín fighting alongside Luis María; he was adopted into his family. He wore a Tomahawk axe fastened at his waist.

During the journey, the Peralta family carried a great festivity. Robert was an excellent guitarist, while Sophie had a magnificent and well-trained voice. Together, they sang La Bamba.

The charro competition is going to be very tough. The ones from Bernardo ranch in San Diego are the strongest. They have never been beaten, said Pablo.

But the Peralta family had an ace up their sleeve: they relied on Sophie’s agility in the art of horse-riding, trained by her grandmother Zoey, and Robert’s skills in charro arts, honed by the Mexican workers of the San Antonio ranch.

Market Street, San Francisco

https://www.alamy.es/imagenes/G38A6F.html?apaid=fd6ca3d4-6762-40e0-99d4-d71f0ab83075&sortBy=relevant

Twelve hours later, the Peralta family crossed Market Street in the bustling city. Zoey pointed out a sign announcing San Francisco’s centennial celebrations. Next to it, a smaller sign shared details of the upcoming charro competition. Finally, they read words that filled them with pride:

TRIBUTE TO A DISTINGUISHED CALIFORNIAN:

LUIS MARÍA PERALTA VALENZUELA. CITY HALL, 7 PM JUNE 29, 1876

By 1876, the city had become the tenth largest in the United States, boasting a thriving urban center with hotels, schools, parks, churches, synagogues, and bookstores.

Main Buildings of San Francisco, 1876.

https://www.alamy.es/imagenes/ER99C8.html?apaid=fd6ca3d4-6762-40e0-99d4-d71f0ab83075&sortBy=relevant

Soon, the rest of the Peralta family took turns looking out the window at the city. They traveled the entire California Street, a beautiful and bustling thoroughfare. The sound of old jazz music emanated from bars, and they could see trams, which barely managed to climb the steep inclines of the city. Minutes later, they had arrived at the city center, Portsmouth Square.

It’s worth mentioning that in 1869, a horse-drawn tram on slippery cobblestones fell and dragged the horses to their death. As a result, Andrew Smith Hallidie invented a cable car system. William Eppelsheimer was the engineer. The climbing trams of San Francisco began service on August 2, 1873.

This square has witnessed the history of this city. The year the California Gold Rush erupted, many adventurers arrived at the Mexican village of Yerba Buena, a place where about eight hundred souls lived, Pablo narrated.

Portsmouth Square, San Francisco, 1876

Alamy 2A59BH9

https://www.alamy.es/la-historia-de-california-portsmouth-square-o-plaza-san-francisco-ca-1866-image330276949.html?imageid=AA814D9C-18D8-4531-9408-756B76D3F75C&p=1142367&pn=1&searchId=4a088827952cbe526e57940e784a55a8&searchtype=0

On July 9, 1846, the first United States flag was raised near the Mexican adobe customs house in this square. Many historical events have taken place here, in this spot, Pablo narrated as they circled Portsmouth Square.

That’s right, Maria Alicia interjected. Many years have passed since then. The city has grown significantly. There are fewer Victorian houses visible now, and it seems like the number of piers in the bay has doubled since the last time we came.

Much of the wood used in construction came from the forests of our San Antonio ranch, Pablo affirmed.

The Peralta family’s wagon finally reached its destination: the Grand Hotel. The next morning, all the competitors went to train at the great San Francisco stadium in preparation for the competition. Sophie was among the most enthusiastic. Something inside her told her they could achieve victory.

Her excitement was so intense that she pushed herself too hard during training. Repeating complex maneuvers, Sophie fell off her horse and injured her ankle. They had to call a doctor from San Bernardo ranch. It wasn’t long before a young man named Steve arrived.

I’m Dr. Snook. Don’t worry, miss, you’re in good hands.

Will I be able to compete? Sophie asked immediately.

Of course, miss. Everyone is excited to see you compete.

While the other participants continued their training, Zoey, Pablo, and María Alicia decided to stroll down First Street, passing time before their lunch with Bill Richardson, the Mayor of San Francisco and the son of a great friend of Luis María. As they walked, they were distracted by visiting various shops.

My father loved coming to this ice cream parlor, Doña Zoey reminisced.

Is that Mr. Derek Bryant over there? said Pablo, spotting a black man opening his gun and ammunition store in the distance.

Yes, it is! replied María Alicia. Derek! Do you remember us?

Of course! I was expecting you to come.

We couldn’t miss the tribute.

The Peralta family did not hesitate to continue greeting the owners of places like the dry cleaner’s, the market, and the butcher shop on Grant Avenue. Everyone knew who Luis María had been, and in all of them, there was a deep affection and respect for his memory.

240 California St. Tadich Grill, 1876.

https://www.alamy.es/imagenes/2BJ06EY.html?apaid=fd6ca3d4-6762-40e0-99d4-d71f0ab83075&sortBy=relevant

Autorización Alamy 2BJ06EY.

The lunch hour arrived, and they turned the next corner onto California Street to reach Tadich Grill. Upon arrival, their first action was to greet the owner, John Tadich. At the table, they were awaited by the young Mayor Bill Richardson, who introduced them to two businessmen: the Italian chocolatier Domingo Ghirardelli and the German-Jewish clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss. After the appetizers, Richardson cautioned them:

Be careful, my dear friends, the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance is running rampant. It’s a mafia-like group that, instead of solving the increase in criminality, has created another problem due to the type of people they’ve recruited.

The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, a 19th-century wood engraving.

https://www.alamy.es/foto-california-vigilantes-ncalifornia-vigilantes-ejecutar-las-ordenes-del-juez-lynch-el-grabado-en-madera-del-siglo-xix-95483873.html

The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance had been formed in the mid-19th century in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal government of San Francisco, California; but instead of monitoring, they preferred to intimidate the population and extort money.

Thank you for the warning, Mayor. We will be cautious, Pablo responded.

After finishing their meal, the Peraltas decided to visit Isidore Boudin at Boudin Bakery to pick up their supply of sourdough bread, a must-visit in San Francisco. After completing their purchases, they entered the alley where they had parked their wagon, only to be