"This Land Was Mexican Once": Histories of Resistance from Northern California

267 Pages·2007·9.966 MB·English

by  Linda Heidenreich

“this land was mexican once”
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd ii 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2277 AAMM
chicana matters series, deena j. gonzález
and antonia castañeda, editors
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd iiii 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2288 AAMM
Histories of
“This Land Was
Resistance
Mexican Once”
from Northern
California
by linda heidenreich
university of texas press
Austin
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd iiiiii 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2288 AAMM
Copyright © 2007 by Linda Heidenreich
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2007
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should
be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713-7819
www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html
∞ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heidenreich, Linda, 1964–
This land was Mexican once : histories of resistance from Northern
California / by Linda Heidenreich.—1st ed.
p. cm. — (Chicana matters series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-292-71633-9 (cl. : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-292-71634-6
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Napa County (Calif.)—Historiography. 2. Napa County (C alif.)—
History—Anecdotes. 3. Mexican Americans—California—Napa
County—History—Anecdotes. 4. Wappo Indians—California—Napa
County—History—Anecdotes. 5. Women—California—Napa
County—History—Anecdotes. 6. Immigrants—California—Napa
County—History—Anecdotes. 7. Government, Resistance to—Cali -
for nia—Napa County—History—Anecdotes. 8. Napa County ( Calif.)
—Social conditions—Anecdotes. 9. Napa County (Calif.)—Race rela-
tions—Anecdotes. I. Title.
f868.n2h45 2007
979.4(cid:2)19—dc22
2007006355
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd iivv 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2288 AAMM
In gratitude
To my mother, Dolores D. Heidenreich
And to the B.V.M.
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd vv 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2288 AAMM
Contents
preface xi
introduction 1
Chapter 1
precolonial stories/precolonial histories 15
Chapter 2
stories of settler-colonizers, and of the
colonized 40
source break: bear flag narratives 72
Chapter 3
the bear flag incident 75
Chapter 4
stories and histories of women and violence
in the colonial north 93
source break: the white mind 112
Chapter 5
mobilizing linear narratives 116
source break: civilized man 140
Chapter 6
raced bodies in white spaces 142
Chapter 7
conclusion 167
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd vviiii 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2288 AAMM
viii contents
173 notes
223 bibliography
243 index
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd vviiiiii 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2288 AAMM
Illustrations and Tables
Illustrations
Figure 2.1 racial categorization, married
couples, san francisco, 1790 50
Photograph 4.1 maría higuera juárez 98
Photograph 5.1 miss washburn’s room, central school 121
Photograph 6.1 chinese family in front of temple 160
Photograph 6.2 st. helena, chinatown 161
Tables
Table 2.1 racial categorization, san francisco
presidio, 1790 49
Table 2.2 racial categorization, san francisco
region, 1786 49
Table 6.1 california population 1850 to 1870 143
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd iixx 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2288 AAMM
Preface
Among the students of Beatrice Pita, there is a saying that all history is
really me story, and so it goes. This me story is very much about the con-
tradictions of a small American town in the mid-twentieth century. The
text itself traces the histories of a much earlier time, but the questions
it addresses originated in the twentieth century, in the gut of a young
mixed Euro-Latina girl in “Down-Valley Napa.” The questions that we
encounter in our childhoods resonate throughout this nation-state, and
so we re-encounter them in our graduate studies, in our jobs, and, for
those of us from bi-national families, in other countries having strong
ties to the United States.
As will be discussed in detail in the Introduction to this book, Napa
has a very complicated past. Its Indigenous history can be traced back
for thousands of years; Mexican culture dominated the region for a
large portion of the nineteenth century. By the time that the United
States invaded in 1846, Napa held a richly layered history, and that his-
tory had to be subjugated in order for the white supremacist order of the
twentieth century to be established and normalized.
As young people, growing up in Napa, we seldom questioned the
order of things. As an adult, I question why it was that we could not
fi nd the tools to do so. And so this book is very much about asking un-
comfortable questions about the histories of small-town America, but
also about the ways that social systems are established and normalized
throughout the nation-state and through the use of history. The text
attempts to de-stabilize white supremacist narratives; and so it is also
about recentering Wappo histories, Chicana and Chicano histories, and
immigrant histories. In the course of writing the text, my partner often
teased that I would become “the dirty girl” of the Napa Valley. Perhaps
so. But as this country becomes increasingly diverse, there are more and
more people who are raising similar questions, and more and more peo-
ple attempting to write decolonial histories. If we are ever to success-
fully dismantle white supremacy and its cousin, imperialist militarism,
0000AA--TT44110000--FFMM..iinndddd xxii 22//2277//0077 1100::1188::2299 AAMM