Customer Reviews

Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846 (California Legacy Book)

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This book covers the era when California (also known as Alta California) was a possession of Spain and Mexico. It is essentially a collection of first hand accounts from various people of this era.

Since most, if not all, of these accounts were originally in Spanish, they require translation, and that is the book's one weakness: almost all the accounts read like they were written by the same person; some of the character of the individual writers is lost.

Nonetheless, this is a good book, both readable and fast-moving. It is interesting that while we know a lot about the Revolutionary era and the founding of the United States, the topics in this book - which take place on the same continent at around the same time - are almost unknown. That, in itself, makes this book a good read.

Stashed away in the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, in the Huntington Library in San Marino, and in a dozen other places are the original letters, diaries, reports, articles, and other accounts of Spanish and Mexican California. Such primary documents are simply inaccessible to the lay reader.

However, what Rose Marie Bebe and Robert Senkewicz -- both professors at Santa Clara University -- have done is to select various primary materials, draw excerpts, translate them to English, and then add introductory commentary to set each item in its historical context. The result provides a direct view into California's Spanish and Mexican heritage through the words of those who lived those times.

While each selection covers no more than a few pages, here are passages from Colombus, de las Casas, Cortes, Cabrillo, Vizcaino, Portola, Serra, Fages, Osio, Pico and many others whose names may be familiar from general surveys of California history. Also included, where possible, are accounts from the indigenous people and a selection from the Russians who hunted for furs along the northern coast. Of particular interest is "1785: Trials of a Frontier Woman" which contains a petition from Dona Callis in protest against her husband.

The compact disposition of each document allows for two advantages: the text never drags and the book is able to cover a comprehensive range of topics (more than seventy original documents are presented). This is a marvelous reader of carefully edited materials. The authors have done the hard work; their scholarship is for us to enjoy.

This book gathers excerpts from many different sources relating to the efforts of Spain to colonize early California. Some interesting early writings on the natives. The author/editor gives a little context in short writings on each section, and makes a great effort to keep his opinion aside and to be objective and open to the perspectives of the original actors. This is a good book for someone interested in seeing the thoughts and concepts of the early Spanish explorers and colonists, as well as getting some first and second-hand accounts of life for all the people in early 'California'.